


Suffocating Fate

by Chocobae



Series: Final Fantasy XV [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Violence, Domestic romance, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fanfiction, Fear, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Multi, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, References to Depression, Romance, Smut, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2018-10-10 07:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 78,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10431891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocobae/pseuds/Chocobae
Summary: Eos is a rather large world to explore, and hearing the stories from outside the wall gets a child to dream of what could be beyond the Walls of Insomnia. What adventures that could be waiting. What adventures that could happen among friends. Ciel is the only daughter of a rather powerful single mother, and being raised along side Noctis Lucis Caelum, she's gone through a lot more then she should be going through at a young age. Though surrounded by many good people, she keeps herself tall to support the Prince that she will lay her life for in her duty. Helping guide Noctis along his path of the fate that he was born in, she has yet to learn that there is more to being next to the Chosen King then she originally thought. Having to not only balance Noctis' and Lunafreya's fate on her shoulders, she has to somehow manage not to let her fate suffocate her when she becomes her weakest.





	1. Chapter One- Beyond Those Walls

‘ _In this world, pushing and pulling is a continuous moment. It’s like the war with the Empire. We are always pushing them away from the innocent to protect them, then there are times where we have to pull away because we’re being over powered. But there will be a day when we finally push the Empire and peace will come at last._ ’

Both children looked at the man that was gazing out towards the land beyond the walls of Insomnia. King Regis Lucis Caelum glanced down at the children that sat upon the edge of the wall, their eyes wide with wonder. They were still young, and didn’t understand completely yet, but he knew one day that they would try fighting for the peace of them all. He was grateful that his son already had two loyal companions at his side. At least he knew that his son was going to be in good hands when the time came. Hopefully it wouldn’t be before his son had a chance to experience life.

Noctis Lucis Caelum was watching his father through bright blue eyes, before looking to the girl beside him. Ciel Gavin had already returned her attention to beyond the Wall. Looking over everything once again. Noctis was the one who had brought the girl up here after telling her of all the things that he had gotten lucky to see beyond the wall. Ciel was amazed and Noctis wanted to give a good gift to his friend. So, the young Prince ask his father if they could go atop of the wall to show Ciel a bit of what was beyond it.

Ciel was amazed honestly. Even if it wasn’t much, it was truly something else to see what was beyond the walls that kept out the danger. That kept them all safe. Though for her, it fueled her sense of adventure, and she couldn’t believe that she were ever to go out further that the Empire was doing something to ruin something so beautiful. Ciel looked back up to King Regis, her own blue eyes curious as ever.

 _‘Is there going to be a day that I can go with Noctis beyond the Wall?_ ’ Ciel asked innocently, hoping that it would one day happen, and hopefully they had won the war against the Empire by then. She wanted to see the world. Ciel kind of had an understanding that she was going to be around Noctis all her life, at least that’s what her mother keeps hinting at.

Regis raised his hand, softly ruffling Ciel’s hair, getting a giggle from the small girl, causing Noctis to smile as well, happy that his friend was enjoying the time with them. ‘ _Yes, one day, you and Noctis will go beyond the walls together,_ ’ Regis confirmed, perfectly fine with the young child’s question.

Noctis leaned close to Ciel, catching her attention, smiling widely. ‘ _Yeah, you and me will travel all over beyond the Wall, and we’ll protect people,_ ’ he said, taking a hold of his friend’s hand, getting her to look back out to the land that was now washed in the setting sun’s light. ‘We’ll keep everyone safe from the Empire.’

‘ _While taking naps on occasions? And will Iggy be there too?_ ’ Ciel asked, her eyes wide again, trying to imagine what it was going to be like when they were older and were able to do this. ‘ _Because I’m pretty sure a King needs his Adviser after all…_ ’

‘ _And a cook,_ ’ Noctis reminded her, making Ciel nod her head, happy with the idea.

Yeah, that was how their lives were going to be. With Noctis, helping him to keep everyone within and beyond the Wall safe. Iggy was going to be there too. Along with Ciel’s mother and King Regis. And whoever else came into their lives and joined them on their adventures.

  
… And there is that memory once again, playing in Ciel’s head as she awoke in the alley way beside the school once again. It was getting dark out from what she could see above her head. Her body ached all over. Getting to her feet, Ciel brushed herself off, taking out her phone to see that she was seriously running late for her lessons. She could probably make a quick stop at home before heading to the Citadel. If she ran that was.

Taking a painful breath of fresh air, she started off on a careful jog, just to be sure that she wasn’t seriously hurt. When she was certain that she wasn’t, Ciel began to break out into a full sprint. Luckily it was weapons training today, so she didn’t have to worry about her mother’s worried voice mails and text messages. Though, she was going to have to deal with a rather annoyed teenage boy that was most likely going to wipe her ass against the mat again for being late.

Slipping into her house, she dropped off her bag in her room, Ciel reached under her bed to grab the first aid kit that she now kept since she started Middle School. Getting out of her now ruined clothes, tossing them under her bed to deal with them later. Getting out the full length mirror from her closest, Ciel began to bandage herself up. First starting off with a potion, which soon followed into her placing the bandages on her body where they needed to be. Once she was happy with her work, Ciel was dressed once again, into easier clothes to workout in, before checking her phone.

{Cup Noodles}  
- _WHERE ARE YOU? TWO HOURS LATE! -delivered @5:15pm_ -

Ciel cringed at the message. Yeah, she was going to be getting her ass handed to her again today. At least she can come up with an excuse about the injuries. Then maybe that would get her off the hook a little bit, not much, but a little bit. At least she knew that she would be getting some kind of food before anything though. She was hungry after all.

{Pupu}  
- _I’m on my way, I’ll explain when I get there -sent @5:20pm_ -

Slipping on her shoes. Ciel was out the door again, sprinting to the Citadel, knowing that the sooner she got there, the sooner she could just climb up the stairs and crash with Noctis for the night and have at least a decent start to the weekend.

Ciel was hoping that these beatings would be stopping now. They were closer to High School. One more year to go and they would be there. What was it that she gotten beaten up for this time? Right… Because they were teasing Prompto about his weight again, and when she went to go save Prompto, then that lead to it about her getting babied since she was Best Friend with Noctis. Maybe when she finally got the Citadel she would send a quick text to Prompto to let the boy know that she was okay, and that she would go and see him tomorrow at school.  
  
Ciel had just crossed the gates when she looked to the steps to see a rather unimpressed look of the very person she was going to be meeting. Okay, after training, she was going to message Prompto to let him know that they shouldn’t be bothering him for a few days. Right now though, she was going to deal with the other boy that she was now drawing close to.

“Did you fall again?” the person that was waiting for her asked, looking over the bandages that clung to her skin, and she obviously didn’t do as well as a job then she thought. “Come on… Let’s get into the Citadel and I’ll take care of them.”

With a swift nod, Ciel followed after the person, catching up to them at last. Gladiolus Amicitia was the boy’s name. He was the eldest son to Clarus, King Regis’ sworn shield. Gladiolus was Noctis’ shield, as that was the Amicitia bloodline. Gladiolus, for about a year or two now, had began training Noctis and Ciel with weapons, and just training in general. So, speaking, Ciel spent a lot of time with the older boy, four years her senior. Though, it was a bit obvious that Gladiolus didn’t like Noctis a whole lot because for some really dumb reason, one that Ciel couldn’t even figure out for the longest time before she confronted Ignis about it, Noctis was going through a phase due to King Regis’ lack of spending time with him. Ciel tried to explain it to Gladiolus, he didn’t seem to understand, highly due to the fact that he had grown up with his father barely around due to his duty.

Ciel now found her in Gladio’s room at the Citadel, sitting in nothing but an oversize t-shirt that belonged to the older boy. She sat upon the bed as Gladio was on the floor dealing with her legs right now before he ventured up further. If someone was to see this, they would get the wrong idea at first sight, but honestly, Ciel or Gladio saw nothing wrong. Gladio had seen Ciel naked so many times before, and she felt no shame. Though Ciel did have respect of others, she only really got naked in front of Gladio if she had no other choice. Oddly enough, she was comfortable around him, and in return, he was comfortable around her.

“Seriously, you really need to go see a doctor or somebody about you falling all the time,” Gladio said, looking up at the girl, his eyes serious. She could pretty much tell that he had a stressful time with training Noctis again without her around to keep the Prince from being too much of an ass. “Why haven’t you gone to your mother when you get your injuries?”

Ciel shrugged her shoulders, trying to come up with a good excuse as to why hide the wounds of her getting beaten up. “Um, probably because she’s busy here at the Citadel with the King, it’s her job to be by his side, I’m not a baby anymore, I should at least learn how to patch myself up without my mother’s help,” she pointed out, leaning back onto her hands, watching Gladio. “...And I like to think I’m improving.”

Gladio chuckled, shaking his head. No matter how many times he tried to get her to go to her mother about this stuff, she always threw it back at him with some really good reason, and he just took it. “They seem to be working late tonight as well with the recent battle that the Empire,” he said, changing the topic to something else. “Want to come back with me to the Manor and Jared can cook us up a late dinner after training?”

“Or we could go out and buy Cup Noodles, they have our favor in extra large cups now,” Ciel suggested, leaned forward, grinning down at Gladio who was in front of her.  
“Maybe we can got and get those, we go back to the Manor and we do your homework instead tonight,” Gladio also suggested, then pointed to the shirt that she wore. “Strip.”

Ciel began slipping from the t-shirt, taking her options into consideration. If they were to train, Gladio was probably not going to take her seriously, and she didn’t like that. So, her only option really has to be doing her homework tonight. “Okay, let’s go back to the Manor to study,” she agreed to, now sitting in front of Gladio with her sports bra on, and boyshorts underwear.

Gladio nodded his head, clearly focused on his work right now. She sat there comfortably, letting him do his work without much of an issue. Ciel leaned one way to give him more room, then doing it again when he went to another wound. Some wounds had returned, making this whole thing a lot worst. Finally, Gladio got to her head, looking that the lump that was there. “You might have a concussion,” he said, his lips forming into a firm line. Ciel wasn’t surprised, her classmates did bash her head into the wall and the ground a few times… Maybe even a few kicks too after she blacked out. “Maybe we should go and get you looked at by a doctor.”

“I’ll be fine Gladio, I’ll just take it easy for a few days, don’t even have a headache,” she said, grinning at him. At least that wasn’t a lie. She wasn’t feeling like one normally did when they had a concussion, so she was probably fine. “I’m tough, a fall on my head wouldn’t take me down that easily.”

Glaido said, knowing that he had no way of talking her out of this. And if she said she was fine, she was most likely fine. With everything dealt with, Gladio handed Ciel back her pants, helping her slip them on carefully, to not annoy the wounds under her bandages. She grabbed Gladio’s t-shirt, slipping that back onto her body. She got her socks and shoes back on. “We gotta go back to my place to grab my school bag,” Ciel told him, brushing some of her head out of her face.

Gladio smiled, reach down and helping her with dealing with her hair that kept falling into her face. “Maybe you need a haircut as well,” he brought up, going over to his desk, pulling a few pins from it before coming back over and fixing her hair before placing the pins in to hold the hair from her face. “There, now let’s get going, I’m hungry and I think it would be easier to get that homework done before it gets too late.”

Ciel nodded her head, bouncing out the door, Gladio following closely behind her. Maybe the reason why she was okay with getting beaten up each and every day was because she could always turn to Gladio when she needed it. He was something special to Ciel, and he was rather handsome. Maybe it was just a silly crush, and she would get over it. She most likely would.

“Hey, Gladio, do you think we can go camping this summer?”

“Maybe, you should bring it up to the King. It would be good for the Prince.”

“Yeah, Noctis would love it.”

Yeah, it was just some silly crush.   
  
Ciel jumped out the car, waving to Jared before closing the door, she headed to her classroom, not bothered by anything, even with the looks she was getting. Arriving in class, she went to the back left corner taking the seat in front of the last one, before turning around to looking at the before behind her. “Morning, Prompto,” she greeted the boy.

Blue eyes behind glasses greeted her, with cute little freckles upon his cheeks and fluffy hair that felt like chocobo feathers. “Ciel… Are you okay?” Prompto asked, clearly guilty about what happened yesterday. “They seemed to have made it worst,”

Prompto Argentum was Ciel’s classmate and only friend outside anything that involves the Citadel. He had rather big blue eyes, a much brighter shade than Ciel’s brighter steel blue ones. His freckles toned down his pale skin, giving him nice color. His hair was bright blonde, but not chocobo feather blonde, but still, Ciel couldn’t help but be reminded of chocobo’s and both children love chocobo’s with all of their hearts. Prompto felt bad for having Ciel get beaten up for him pretty much every other day. He always told her she needed to tell someone, but she kept reminding him that they would grow up of it and hopefully realize that they were being little assholes about something that had nothing to do with them.

“Prom, I’ll be okay, maybe a few old wounds getting banged up again, but nothing too bad,” Ciel said, looking down at Prompto’s camera that rested in his hands, and she caught a glimpse of a nice morning view. “Hey, did you take more pictures during your run this morning?”

Prompto looked to Ciel, before showing the pictures to Ciel, talking about them. Ciel was so amazed by Prompto’s talent. He had a really good eye, along with skill. Like he caught a really nice photo of Ciel one morning during a run. She hoped that one day that Prompto would make a career out of this and be pretty famous if he can be, yet his mission right now was to lose weight and befriend Noctis, which Ciel was closely cheering him on from the sidelines- as well as speaking about Prompto to Noctis on occasions. Ciel saw the letter that was sent to Prompto by Luna, she found it sweet that the very dog that Prompto was taking care of was Pryna. She even got to send a letter to Luna when Umbra visited. Yet, this was all up to Prompto, and she was going to support him the best she could.

The school day had went by rather quickly, and Ciel managed to sneak some potions into her lunch that morning, so by the time that the bell rang for the day to end, Ciel had all her bandages off and she was walking next to Noctis to get picked up by Ignis. Prompto was on his way to go for his afternoon run, after getting a protein shake from Ciel that she brought him, as a gift. He was pretty grateful.

“Prompto seems to be pretty interested in photography,” Noctis commented as the two of them stood outside the school gate together.

Ciel looked over to the Prince, raising an eyebrow, surprised to see that he brought up Prompto on his own. “Yeah, you should see the pictures he takes, he’s got a pretty amazing talent for it,” she said, pulling out her phone to looking for a good photo from the many that he had sent her. Finally picking one, she showed her phone to Noctis, who looked at it closely, his eyes widening.

“This is amazing…” He stated, taking the phone from her hand, and began looking through the folder that she had upon her phone. They were silent for a few minutes, before finally handing her phone back. “Do you think Prompto will be on the trip tomorrow?”

Ciel thought about it, going back to one of the conversations earlier that day, and she nodded her head. “His parents signed the permission slip before they left again, so yeah, he’s going to be on the trip together.” She said, liking the idea that the three of them might be partnered up together. “Are you wanting a way to apologize to him for pretty much calling him fat?”

Noctis looked down at his feet sheepishly, confirming Ciel’s guess by a mile. “He’s been avoiding me, and he was obviously trying to befriend me, and I was so-” Noctis began rumbling off before Ciel hugged her friend, not caring who saw.

“Calm down, he still wants to be friends with you, he’s just doesn’t see himself worthy to be called your friend yet,” She said, pulling away, knowing that Noctis had finally calmed down. “Look on the bright side, you can try and get to know him tomorrow, we can sit together,”

Noctis looked to Ciel, and smiled, knowing that she was right. Tomorrow was a going to be a good field trip for them. It was probably going to help Ciel a lot after today as well, seeing as she has lessons with her mother before getting to train with Gladio, and she knew the results of her lessons every time.

  
Ciel walked into the training room, her face showing how tired she was, and how annoyed as well. Her lessons once again were a failure. No matter how they tackled this, Ciel couldn’t do White Mage magic to save her life. Not to mention that she had crossed paths with Noctis earlier and he finally told her that he was able to summon weapons now. Ciel thought she was at least close to cracking that at least. But nope, she still can’t summon weapons either, considering she can keep up with Gladio.

Speaking of Gladio, she saw that Cor was there as well, making the girl cringe. This was either a good thing or a bad thing. The good thing being, Cor was there to just talk to Gladio and the bad thing being that he was going to be teaching her, she seriously hoped it wasn’t the latter. The last thing she needed was Cor wiping her face into the mats like Gladio does when she’s late(and not too banged up). Cor noticed her first, seeing as the man was facing towards the door, Gladio turned around as well, and the look on his face meant Cor being here to be a lot worst thing she had expected.

“Gladio, you are dismissed,” Cor said, still watching Ciel closely, probably judging if she was going to stay or book it out of the room. Gladio saluted Cor, before walking off, making eye-contact with Ciel, silently telling her that he was going to be waiting.

Once the door was closed behind Gladio, and she was left with only Cor, Ciel started to make her way towards the Marshal, knowing that she was going to have to face the music sooner or later. “Is there something you need, sir?” She asked, trying to keep her manners up for the time being.

Cor let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. Whatever was bugging him was something that was causing him stress. “Ciel, can you please sit down,” He asked, glancing to the bench that was off to the side of the room near the mat. Softly nodding, Ciel did as she was told, sitting there with her hands held in her help, like she was waiting for some kind of punishment. Cor stood in front of her, looking even more hurt at the sight before him. “I’m going to say that lessons went bad again with your mother,”

Ciel stiffly nodded her head, getting another sigh from Cor. He obviously wanting a different result than the one that he was just given. “There was a council meeting today,” He began, trying to look for a way to explain this. “Your mother was there, and they brought up your lessons with your mother… Ciel, your mother told them, and she stood up with you… As you know, the King is out of Insomnia at the moment, leaving Chancellor Damir in charge.”

“Cor, you’re losing me…” Ciel said, her voice had grown tiny at the mention of Chancellor Damir. Normally Cor was in charge during King Regis’ absents outside of the city, but due to some recent events, Chancellor Damir has been the one in charge since they needed someone who could deal with all the meetings that were going on, and Cor had many other things to do.

What didn’t help was that Regis wasn’t around when it came to the monthly meeting about Noctis’, Ignis’ and Ciel’s report about how they were doing in their studies. Any of their studies. Especially the extracurricular ones after school. Chancellor Damir seemed to have it out for Ciel, since the young girl couldn’t grasp her mother’s teachings. “Damir is suspending you from any training until the King returns,” Cor finally said, knowing that there was no way that he could put this any lighter.

Ciel kind of felt like the entire world just tilted, and was trying to make her fall off now that it hit her. Regis was there, and would stand up for her, along with her mother, Cor, and Clarus. Ciel might be just a late bloomer, but to Damir, he was determined to point out that Ciel just be using this time to grow closer to Noctis, even though she’s been raised alongside him since birth. Or that she just wasn’t meant to be apart of Noctis’ guard. He was trying everything, even bring up the times she’s been late for lessons with Gladio. Yet now, it seemed like he using his power now to throw her out of there, and most likely to throw his niece to take her place, to be more close to the Royal family… His niece had a mouth on her, Ciel knew that.

“Of course,” Ciel said, standing up, and not bothering to even fight back against Cor. She couldn’t do anything about it. In Fourth Grade was when she was learning how to do White Mage magic, she spent four to five years already, and she hasn’t even gotten the basic yet. Her mother was an amazing White Mage, actually, she was probably the best in Insomnia. This wasn’t anything new honestly either, pretty much everyone knew that Ciel couldn’t do a single thing like her mother, and people would talk behind her back, saying that she was shut a disappointment. Not only to her mother, but to Noctis as well.

Ciel walked from the training room, her bag slung over her shoulder. Gladio was waiting there, but she didn’t say anything and walked right by him. She had nothing to say, and she didn’t wish to be in the Citadel anymore, she had no reason to be here anyways. Sending a simple text to her mother, telling her that she was going to Prompto’s and most likely staying the night. She walked down the hallways, seeing it bustle with maids and butlers, along with whoever else. She wasn’t even bothering saying ‘hi’ to anyone. Ciel stopped walking, realizing something, she looked over her shoulder to see that Gladio was slowly following behind her, giving her distance, and she smiled weakly at him.

That was all that Gladio needed to pick up his pace and come over to the younger female. He knew where she was going, so he walked with her, both of them leaving the Citadel together once again. No words were really spoken, seeing that Ciel was in a place where she didn’t know how to react to anything at the moment with just the mixture full of emotions that has been set on high within the blender in her mind. Though, it was Gladio that brought it up.

“We tried to fight Damir on it, but he wasn’t budging and the other Council members went with it,” Gladio said, sounding like he was a bit at fault. “I think your mother was ready to poison him if Cor, Ignis and I hadn’t held her back.” Ciel looked up at Gladio, almost not wanting to believe him, but at the same time, she really did believe it, since it was her mother, and her mother didn’t let anyone trash talk about her, or think that she wasn’t good at something. “Damir was taking away the one good thing that you could do, and it didn’t make your mother happy at all.”

“Everyone compares me to my mother,” Ciel stated, shoving her hands into her pockets of her hoodie that she wore. “I’m meant to be good at White Mage magic, and I haven’t been able to do anything since my mother started me in these lessons,” She took a deep breath, trying so hard not to start yelling and letting slip that her wounds were caused by something else completely. She looked to her feet, watching them instead. “I literally can’t use White Mage magic… Mom even brought Crowe in to help me, and that did nothing at all as well. I am not cut out for being a White Mage… Maybe if I just stuck to weapons training, then maybe it would be okay… I-I just don’t know anymore,”

Ciel was starting to lose hope in everything right now. Maybe it was time to just give up and not even bother with anything anymore, just live a normal life. Lose touch with her Best Friend, and just be with Prompto. Maybe she’ll just join the Kingsglaive; at least Nyx, Crowe and Libertus would be there to keep her company, and they would be great teachers, and she was good with fighting. She could even give Nyx a run for his title of ‘Hero’. She was almost in High School now and she was beginning to slowly start running out of possible reasons as to why she could just do what her mother could do. Each day, just a little bit of hope that she had left was just disappearing and she was starting to lose all the determination and confident that she held for so long.

Gladio remained silent, listening to her, having to let it all out. He didn’t know what to do. He’s never seen her react like this before, but Damir was something that set her off rather quickly and he felt like there had to be something done. He realized during that entire time, they had arrived at the bus stop, and the bus was already on it’s way there. It was literally at the stop lights not that far away. “Well, Cor and your mother will figure something out, just relax, you got a field trip tomorrow and you’re going outside the Wall for the first time,” he brought up, smiling at Ciel softly.

Ciel was still looking at her feet. She was finally going outside of the Wall, and it’s been her dream for years now, but it she just wasn’t feeling it, not after everything today. Everything just seemed to be getting ripped from her at all angles. When the bus pulled up, Gladio grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze, letting her know that she wasn’t alone. Ciel looked down at how his larger hand held her much smaller hand, and it caused her to smile. Maybe everything wasn’t too bad.

  
At least Noctis and Prompto were making small talk on the bus. Ciel had the window seat and was blankly staring out it. She didn’t get a single amount of sleep last night while she was at Prompto’s. The boy had brought up Ciel’s mood after she arrived last night. She bore her soul to the boy, and he let her cuddle up on the couch with him and watch some anime that was related to a game they loved playing. That morning when they got to school, the teacher asked them to get into groups of three, it would seem that Noctis found out about yesterday as well. So, Prompto, Noctis and Ciel became buddies.

Ciel tried to keep a conversation rolling between the three of them, but with lack of sleep, she just couldn’t keep it together and ended up just staring out the window. Her mood had been in that bad head space for hours now and it didn’t help that she was getting those nasty glares again. If she could only do something about it, she could, but yet again, Damir’s order made her just kind of give up. She hadn’t the will to put up a fight right now. Or was she even going to have the will to deal with them later either.

“Hey, Ciel, you wanna go see the chocobo’s after school today?” Noctis asked, looking around Prompto to see if he would get a reaction from her.

She looked to Noctis, and thought about it. “Is Prompto coming along?” she asked, actually rather curious as to why the sudden question of seeing chocobo’s today.

Noctis nodded, his head having a little bit more energy to it. Ciel took that as a promising sign that Prompto and Noctis were getting along much better than she thought, and maybe the small talk was helping them more then she was. “Yeah, I thought maybe it would be a good way for all of us to hang out and get to know each other more,” he said, smiling a bit.

Ciel smiled, happy with it all. “Yeah, let’s do it,” she agreed, then looked to Prompto. “I’m glad that chocobo’s was something that you both could agree on.”

Prompto blushes a little, before he showed Ciel a picture of a baby chocobo that he had taken a photo of at the Chocobo-Moogle Carnival that came to Insomnia last year. “We were looking at my photos when Noctis came across this one,” he said, obviously shy, and probably bit because Noctis was most likely praising him.

Ciel looked more closely, smiling herself. “I remember that,” she said, thinking back to last year. “I twisted my ankle and I was in crutches. I snuck out of the Citadel to come to the Carnival,” She laughed at the memory. She had so much fun, and it was a pretty good workout as well. Though how sore she was the next day, didn’t keep her from going back again. Her mother thought she was crazy.

Noctis, Prompto and Ciel kept talking about everything that they could think of, and because of that, it took everything off of Ciel’s shoulders. She was feeling like a child once again, highly due to the fact that Regis was most likely going to be on her side when he returned, and hopefully got rid of Damir finally from his Council because this had to be counted as harassment by now. Ciel pushed it all to the back of her mind, not worrying herself over it. She can deal with it after school when she gets home. Her mother wanted to talk to her about it anyways, and wanted to see how the field trip went. Now that her two greatest friends in the world were both friends now, and were becoming best friend’s as well, Ciel just felt that much better, and it brought back the excited feeling for being outside of the Wall for the first time.

They had finally arrived, and everyone was kind of spread out doing their own thing. Apparently this was a group building exercise. Plus, the teacher wanted everyone to experience nature outside of the Wall. Noctis, Ciel, and Prompto were over at a field of flowers, ironically, they were Gladiolus flowers. Noctis and Ciel got to explain to Prompto about who Gladio was and the Amicitia family, as well about the tradition of the Amicitia family naming their family members after flowers. Prompto got to learn about the real Noctis that wasn’t at school because Noctis didn’t see any of those people as friends, just people who saw him was the Prince, not Noctis.

It was amazing how the day could pass by so quickly, it didn’t catch their attention until Ciel pointed out that the sun was getting close to hiding behind the walls of Insomnia. And it would seem that the three of them weren’t the only ones. Their teacher was looking rather worried about this fact as well, and was on her phone, talking to someone it would seem. Ciel stuck close to Prompto and Noctis, more so Noctis, due to the fact that training was kicking in, and she was needed to protect Noctis. Just before the sun had disappeared beyond the wall, shadowing them, their teacher called them to come together, wanting to do a headcount, but as well as to keep them together.

What nobody expected a Ronin to appear. Right behind the three of them. Prompto let out a scream, completely terrified. Noctis had summoned a sword, giving Ciel a second to realize that she had totally forgotten about that face that he could summon weapons now. The Ronin was about to attack, and Ciel jumped into action, surprising everyone in the area. With a simple raise of her hand, Ciel had summoned a wall of ice in front of them, blocking the Ronin. Noctis looked to Ciel, smiling widely at her. Ciel was shocked, but seeing the ice start cracking under the Ronin’s attacks, she grabbed both Prompto and Noctis, shoving them ahead of her. The three of them began to run towards their teacher, who had finished putting up wards to protect theo others. The shattering of ice, made the three of them run faster for the safety, but Prompto had fallen. Noctis was about to go back, but Ciel was already rushing back to Prompto, helping him to his feet.

The Ronin was over the two of them, but Noctis appear as fast as light, striking the Ronin, making the deamon stumble back a bit, giving room between them, though it recovered quickly and was coming at them once again. Noctis was about to go at the Ronin again, before Ciel stepped in front of him, using magic to make a shield between them, struggling now, seeing as she had used such a high level spell before hand and was doing yet another one. The Ronin’s sword kept slashing at the shield before it, and Ciel was wincing with each blow. She needed to focus. Prompto and Noctis were slowly backing away but when the shield finally shattered, did things suddenly slow down around them. The Ronin was going in for another strike before a person was before her, knocking the Ronin back, grabbing her and Ciel found herself with Prompto and Noctis once again.

Ciel glanced at the person who saved her before they were attacking the Ronin now. Looking around her, she finally saw that the Glaive had arrived, and she was currently with Crowe and Libertus; who were both ushering the three of them back to their class that were boarding the bus that had finally arrived. Nyx easily finished the Ronin, joining them as well, but when the Firebomb arrived, almost going right for Nyx, Ciel reached out, easily encasing the Firebomb within ice, surprising the three Glavie members, yet it was Libertus that was catching her as she fainted forward, clearly at her limit.

  
The sound of birds were welcoming, not the light so much. Groaning out of annoyance, Ciel turned over in bed, pulling the covers up to hide her face. The sound of someone chuckling made her eyes open, and peek out of the covers. Next to her was Nyx, smiling softly at her. “Good Morning, it’s good to see that you’re up,” the Glaive greeted her, surprisingly not in uniform for once.

Ciel slowly sat up, taking in the area around her, realizing that she was at the Citadel, and in Gladio’s no less. She also noted that she was in one of Gladio’s old t-shirts and shorts as well. She was going to have to guess that Crowe was who changed her, and Gladio must have gotten the clothes at least. She looked to Nyx, her eyes feeling rather heavy. “What happened yesterday?” she asked, her brain feeling rather fuzzy thinking about the previous day. She remembered the Ronin, and the fact that she made an ice barrier, and let’s not forget the shield… That was pretty much where things started to get a big loopy for her.

“Well, turns out you’re actually a Black Mage,” Nyx recapped, getting a nod from Ciel, who guessed that much by now. “You used some seriously strong spells, causing you to passed out. Your mother freaked when we brought you up to the Citadel, Gladio was cheering a bit... “ Nyx was recalling the time that they got back to the Citadel, remembering how lively it gotten, especially after the school called telling them the issue. “The King returned, Damir has been removed from the Council at last, thank the Six for that.”

“About time…” Ciel commented, earning a laugh from Nyx. “Have you been here all night?”

Nyx shook his head. “Nope, I got here maybe an hour ago, Gladio spent the night with you after the King had to coax Prompto and the Prince out of here,” he said, smiling warmly now. “The two of them were pretty worried about you. Your mother shared some of her energy with you to help you get back on your feet a little bit, went and checked on the other two as well.”

Ciel was happy that her mother was there for Noctis and Prompto. Mainly Prompto though, having something happen like that probably freaked him out, as for Ciel and Noctis, they were oddly use to it due to him being a Prince and Ciel pretty much being joint at the hips. “How long have I been out for?” she asked, noticing that it was too late to be any time of the morning.   
Nyx pulled out his phone, and seemed to do a little bit of math before he answered her question. “About six now, so close to twelve hours,” he said, slipping his phone back in his jacket pocket. “You probably would have been out until tomorrow if your mother hadn’t shared any of her energy with you.”

Ciel was grateful that was the case, but the feeling of how hungry she was setted in a bit. “Um, you think you can get me something to eat?” she asked, smiling sheepishly.

Nyx chuckled, smiling at her before getting up and going over to the door. “Anything you want? Cup Noodle?” he asked, knowing exactly what was going through her head. “Biggest one they got?”

Ciel nodded her head, and that was all Nyx needed to leave the room. Ciel waited a few minutes before reaching for her phone that rested on the bedside table and unlocking it. At least Gladio was kind enough to charge her phone for her. She could have just went to games or watched a video but she opened up messages and opened the top one.

{Pupu}  
- _Gladdy, are you busy? -sent @5:45pm_ -

Ciel sat there, waiting for the message. She would probably wait there for awhile until the older boy would answered, but it shocked at the reply that she got right away from Gladio.

{Cup Noodle}  
- _Oh thank the Six, you’re okay-sent @5:52pm_ -  
- _Is Nyx still with you?-sent @5:53pm_ -

{Pupu}  
- _He went to get me Cup Noodles, if you want, I can message him to get you one as well if you want to see me-sent @5:56pm_ -

{Cup Noodle}  
- _Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that. I’ll be there soon-sent @5:57pm_ -

Ciel smiled, closing that chat and going to through the list to find Nyx’s chat before tapping it open as well, quickly asking him to grab one for Gladio as well. Knowing that Nyx would probably get it, anything to make her happy. She saw Prompto’s and Noctis’ chats, before she started up a group and sent the first message.

{Pupu}  
- _Just wanted to let you guys know that I’m okay. I feel a bit weak, Nyx is getting me food. Gladio is going to be visiting me as well. Maybe we can all hang out tomorrow and see the chocobo’s, it’s the weekend after all, and I know I’ll need to get out of the Citadel by then. LISTEN TO IGNIS. Also, tell Iggy that I’m doing okay and I say hi!-sent_ -

Ciel was happy with the message, before she finally click send when a message came in. Leaving the group chat, she saw that she got a message from her mother. She smiled, clicking on it to read what her mother could possible want to say to her.

{Mums}  
- _I saw Nyx, he said that you were up. I’ll come see you later before bed, but I’m busy right now with what went wrong with the bus. I’m glad that Reggie had returned when he did. Gladio had called his father after what happened the other day with Damir, Reggie was actually upset. I’m glad that you do have magic, I guess we really didn’t look at it in another way. Had to fight with Gladio earlier this morning to try and get him to rest a little bit. He was so worried about you. Anyways, I’m glad to hear that you’re up, and don’t let Ignis find out that you’re eating Cup Noodles, or he’ll throw a fit. -sent @6:10pm_ -  
- _Oh, and Gladio is on his way ;)-sent @6:11pm_ -

Ciel didn’t get a chance to message her mother before the door to the bedroom opened up and there was Gladio. What she wasn’t expecting was the fact that Gladio was holding a rather large bouquet of gladiolus flowers in his arms. She just stared at him, and she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and just kept staring at Gladio.

“I know these are a lot of flowers, but I saw them, and I wanted to do something nice,” Gladio said, his cheeks actually dusting a soft pink, something that Ciel has never seen before. Today seemed like a lot of first for Ciel. “And you said you like gladiolus flowers… that didn’t change did it?”  
  
Ciel felt a smile fall onto her face, her face beginning to heat up, because not only was this making her smile, but it was also making her heart beat a little faster than normal as well. “Yeah, I still love gladiolus flowers,” she said, looking at him.

Gladio walked over to the side of the bed, pulling out a vase that was hidden by the bedside table and handed the flowers to Ciel. He disappeared into the bathroom, and she was looking at the flowers. They were such a beautiful maroon red. They even smelled heavenly. This was a great gift, and something that wasn’t normal that Gladio would do. Maybe Iris had something to do with it. Or Clarus. She didn’t know. Gladio wasn’t someone who would think about something as sweet as this. But, she really didn’t know Gladio outside of the Citadel too much. Gladio was growing closer to graduation, as Ciel was getting close to High School. But they both got Cup Noodles together. Maybe Gladio did think of this for her. He really was something else.

“What? Don’t think I can be a bit soft?” Gladio asked, setting the vase on the table before taking the flowers from her as well. “I take you to noodles all the time.”

Ciel rolled her eyes, still looking at the flowers as she did so. “Gladio, I really don’t know you outside of the Citadel and of your duty to Noctis,” she said, leaning back down once again, her back getting sore with sitting up. “You’re four years older than me, with very different friends.”

Gladio took a seat at the edge of the bed, looking down at her, reaching out and brushing her hair from her face, and his cheeks growing into a brighter pink. “I heard that you were going to see the chocobo’s with Noctis and Prompto, I’ll be there as well, so we can hang out when Noctis and Prompto are too tied up with each other,” he offered, and was leaning back while rubbing the back of his neck. “Maybe after you can come with me to watch me get my tattoo,”

Ciel knew of Gladio’s tattoo, it started back in August, and Ciel had see it a few times after Gladio had a session, she found it so cool, and she even thought of getting one herself when she got older. “Yeah, that sounds good,” she said, nodding her head. “Tattoo’s are just another form of art.”

Gladio smiled, and with perfect timing, Nyx arrived with three Cup Noodles for the three of them. Ciel was glad that she had such good friends. Even if it was only Gladio and Nyx with her right now, it just meant a lot to her anyways. Sure, she gotten beaten up, and didn’t have many friends outside of Noctis and Prompto when it came to school, she was just happy that things were starting to turn around for her.


	2. Chapter Two - Let My Words Ease You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HEY! Here's the second chapter! I'm currently working on the third one as I post this, I hope to have it up in a little bit for you all!

Ciel stumbled into the training room around five o’clock in the evening after going out for supper before getting ushered back up to the Citadel. She was tried, and barely managing to be on her feet at the moment. It has been about two weeks since the school incident, and Ciel had been returned to her lessons, yet at a much more intense rate due to having to make up for lost time. Everyone did their best to be careful with her, especially Gladio since training with him was everyday now as well, weekends included, after all of her lessons with her mother and Crowe, so she now rather tried by the time that she got into the training room. School had gotten a bit better. After all her classmates witness her using magic, they left her alone, and even Prompto now. So, no threats, no bullying, and no more injuries to add to her body.

Speaking of Prompto, he has been hanging out with Noctis a lot more, and it’s been good for both of the boys. King Regis has even met Prompto and grateful that the boy has been trying to be friends with his son. Ciel has been joining on Prompto on his morning runs as well, and surprisingly, Gladio had crossed their paths. When they went and saw the chocobo’s that weekend together, Ciel was still in a wheelchair, seeing as she was still too weak to when walk. It was fun though, everyone got to come out, needing the much needed break from what happened. She was just glad that she got to touch the chocobo’s even, with Gladio’s help of lifting her up. It was a good day, and an even better night as they all slept over at the Citadel, Iris included. They were up late, watching movies. In the end, Prompto, Noctis, and Iris had passed out together on their make-shift bed on the floor as Gladio and Ciel had taken over the couch. Ciel had the picture in her room in a rather large frame with many others, but with empty spaces as well.

“Hey, you made it, I thought you would be getting some rest right now,” Gladio mentioned, seeing that she was there, slowly getting into stretching out her limbs. “...Are you sure you don’t want to cut down on the training for right now until you’re caught up with your magic lessons?”

Ciel shook her head, looking to Gladio with a tired smile. “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” she said, letting out a yawn mid stretch. “I am so close to summoning a weapon, plus, it’s building up stamina for me,”

These last two weeks, Ciel has tried everything to summon a weapon, and she would get the clear, glass-like blue magic that came with summoning weapons, but nothing came out, and it frustrated her to no end when nothing appeared in her hand. So, she spent her days training with different weapons. It sucked because she gets so close, but just nothing happens. Maybe it was because she was too tired, who really knew.

Training started off as normal. Ciel and Gladio were sparring hand to hand combat first, seeing that it would give her time to gain back some energy. It was going on much longer though, due to Ciel’s sluggish movements. Finally, Ciel was dropping, and Gladio was following through with a punch, that he had no chance in stopping before it hit, luckily Ciel was smart enough to barrier herself, stopping his fist in time once she was on the ground. Gladio pulled back his hand, coming to sit next to her, propping her up against his body. Ciel was taking deep breathes in, not even realizing that she had gotten so tired, enough to get her weak in the knees.

“You doing okay?” Gladio asked once again, a bit worried now, seeing her just drop like that.

Ciel just weakly nodded her head. Guess she was a lot more tired than she originally thought, plus side, she kept up rather well, and actually managed to land a few hits on to Gladio before she dropped. The two of them sat there, chatting about nothing. No topic that they fell into needed any more than a few words before falling off again into yet another topic. They talked about school for Ciel, and Gladio’s training with the Crownguard, maybe joking jabs at Noctis since he wasn’t in the room. He even brought up supper last night between Noctis and the King and how the King actually managed to get Noctis to eat his vegetables. Ciel was laughing, and she was almost ready to go again until loud voices were heard, it sounded rather intense. Gladio got Ciel to her feet, ushering to behind one of the weapons rack, and made it look like he was cleaning up when he was keeping Ciel from view. The door to the training room opened up, and the voices could be heard much clearer now.

Ciel could pick out her mother’s voice, then there was Clarus’ voice, even Regis’, oddly enough Cor and Nyx were there as well. She stood perfectly still, and Glado looked towards the the group that walked in, and seemed to be coming straight towards them. Holding her breath, she listened in on what was possibly being said that they needed to come storming in here like they were.

“Gladio, is Ciel still here?” Regis asked, stopping a few feet away from Gladio who stopped what he was doing, and moving to make sure that nobody caught sight of her.

“No, your Highness, she’s isn’t,” Gladio said, lying perfectly through his teeth, as he looked at everyone within the room, raising an eyebrow. “What is this about?”

There was silence that hung over them, Ciel was wondering if they knew that Gladio was lying or not, and waiting for Ciel to show herself. But she stayed put, and didn’t do anything. The silence finally did end, thanks to Nyx finally deciding to speak up. “A boy from Prince’s class, meaning Ciel’s and Prompto’s class confessed something rather… worrisome that concerns Ciel.”

Ciel felt her breath catch in her throat. Prompto wouldn’t but there were many  other boys in the class that Ciel has partnered up with, but they stayed away from anything with the Prince involved because they did not want to be caught up in the mess that could be rather bad. A fine example being Ciel with all the beatings she’s been getting since Middle School started, which luckily stopped two weeks ago with recent discovery that she wasn’t a White Mage user.

“What could it be?” Gladio asked, curious, and rather confused. She couldn’t blame him for wondering what could be wrong, but she was going to be getting waves of questions from Gladio once they were alone again.

“Have you noticed injures that Ciel has been coming to the Citadel with or anything that’s been prolonged for many days?” Cor asked, his voice serious, it was actually rather scary as to what they had been told. And Ciel was really scared that this was going to be turned into a larger problem than it was in the beginning.

“Uh… Yeah, but the ones that she’s gotten from falling down stairs or to the ground, I take care of them, and they check out for being such injuries,” Gladio said, his voice coming off a bit strained. Ciel was praying that he didn’t messed up now. “Are the injures from something else?”

“Gladio, do you know if Ciel is getting bullied at school?” Ciel’s mother asked, clearly distressed at the news that was told to them. Ciel felt rather bad for even lying, but she felt like this had to be done, because the last thing she didn’t want to do was bring shame to a family. “The boy said that he’s seen her get beaten up over the fact that she’s friends with Noctis, because people pick on Prompto, and if it’s really rich children, that have heard to Ciel’s failures due to Damir shaming my daughter behind our backs, I need to know if he’s told anyone about it.”

Gladio had fallen silent, obviously rather conflicted towards how to answer any of this, because she knew that Gladio was now looking back upon the past and was now thinking that it could be the case of all those times that she’s been late. “Have you asked Prompto and Noctis about it?” he asked, relief washing over Ciel now he didn’t decided to just give her away. “Their her best friends, why would she share stuff like that with me?”

There was a sigh heard, once that Ciel heard from her mother many times before. “I wanted to, but I thought that maybe she would tell you more so than Noctis and Prompto, since she’s told you a lot in the past that the boys didn’t know about,” Evelyka said, sounding rather runned down about all of this. “I want to trust my daughter, but with something like this coming up now, I worry that she kept this to herself because you how she is when it comes to things like this.”

Silence fell over them again, Ciel was biting her lip, she was so scared that, they were going to find out that she was there, but she didn’t say anything, she didn’t want to say anything. She didn’t want to risk getting questions shoved down her throat.  What was she even going to tell them? Yeah, she was getting the shit beaten out of her because she could care less. Maybe she should come clean… Would that be better for everyone? She didn’t know, she was at a heavy lost right now.

“Gladio, if you can…” Nyx said, his own voice heavy with something, he was probably the one that was told about this. And he probably was concerned too. “Just ask her about it when you can. Honestly, the last thing she needs right now is all of us going at her, especially Evelyka since she’s gone through enough with Damir pretty much having it out for Ciel for years. And the last thing we need is for her to freak out and possibly hurt herself… or have her feeling like shit for hurting someone else if her magic just lets loose.”

“Sure, I’ll ask her about it tomorrow or some time in the future,” Gladio agreed, and that seemed to be enough for them. The all seemed to have left when Gladio agreed to question her about it all. Just to be sure, Gladio and Ciel stood exactly where they were before Gladio turned around and eyed Ciel. “Care to explain something to me?”

Ciel looked to Gladio, honestly, at a slight lost of words. So, there was someone who saw that? All those beatings and knew about them? She had originally thought that it was Prompto, but he wasn’t one to get authorities involved, and Noctis never knew about what was going one, so it had to be someone within the class, just she didn’t know who. “What? You know, it could be someone just trying to get close to Noctis and take advantage of his kindness,” Ciel pointed out, clearly not going to try and dig herself deeper within that lie, but to try and see if she could move around it without being obvious about it. “Like I said, it’s usually me falling, you’ve seen how uneven the ground is around the school, it’s easy to get hurt.”

Gladio watched Ciel closely, she was actually positive that Gladio had already caught on and was ready to drag her to Evelyka; her mother, and tell her that Ciel had been quiet about it the whole time. Though that sigh of defeat cleared up that thought. “I guess you’re right, and the last thing we need is a scandal coming up in the future because we weren’t careful now,” he agreed, rubbing the back of his neck, clearly not sure how to not argue against that kind of standing logic. “Are you sure that nobody is bugging you at school?”

Ciel nodded her head, agreeing that nothing was wrong. Luckily, Gladio had finally let it go. Ciel was grateful for that, and because of that, she needed to make sure that nothing else come to light or more troubles would begin to happen… Hopefully Prompto doesn’t let spill that was exactly what was happening to Ciel or she was going to have a rather pissed off Gladio on her case. And she did not want that.

\--------------------------

The weekend had came around once again. Though it would seem like everyone was busy. Prompto’s parents had came home, so he was spending time with them. Something was going on at the Citadel that required her mother’s and Gladio’s attention. Ignis was currently in custody of both Noctis and Iris until things settled down, which most likely wouldn’t be until bed time. So, Ciel was entrusted to the Kingsglaive for the day. She currently was on Nyx’s back as he carried her around the area, talking about how he was going to be helping her learn how to warp strike, and hoping that she could learn it, meaning she could race against Noctis when they could.

Ciel actually liked most of the Glaives, they were pretty cool people. The Captain; Titus Drautos was a pretty chill guy, he was serious about his job, and almost reminded her of Cor in a way, but the two did work together often. Pelna Khara and Luche Lazarus; Ciel liked them too, they always took care of her if Nyx, Crowe or Libertus weren’t around, but she usually save them at dinner if she was with Nyx for the day. The only person that Ciel pretty sure she only hated was Tredd Furia, he was just a joke, and an ass to Nyx, she didn’t like him. She kind of wanted to kick his ass with her magic, but then she would get an ear full from Crowe, followed closely by her mother, and even maybe Cor, Clarus and Regis.  So, she wasn’t going to do that...Yet.

“Then maybe for dinner we can all go and hang with the group,” Nyx said, finishing up would seem like to be a pretty solid day for them. “Sounds good to you?”

Ciel thought about it before nodding. “Yeah, sounds good to me. Do you think I might end up sleeping over at your place again?” she said, looking over Nyx’s shoulder to get a better look upon the Glaive that carried her.

“Maybe, depends on what’s up at the Citadel today,” he said, coming into the room where the rest of the Glaives were, or at least the ones that Ciel spent the most time with anyways. “Hey, look who’s here to hang out with us,”

Libertus came over, slipping her from Nyx’s back, pulling her into a back crushing hug, getting a happy laugh from the girl. “Ah, look who it is, the little Black Mage,” he said, placing her on her feet at last, ruffling up her hair. “How are you doing? Crowe has been sharing that you’ve been getting through your studies pretty quickly,”

“I’m doing good Libertus, this is my first break in a couple of weeks since I had to double the workload,” she said, smiling up at the chubbier Glaive, she was pretty sure that was more muscle than anything though since Libertus was pretty quick on his feet, kind of like Gladio in a way. “Nyx said he was going to teach me to warp strike.”

“You think that’s a good idea, Hero?” Pelna asked, coming over to join them, ruffling Ciel’s hair as well to greet her. “I mean, I know that Crowe said that she was pretty good at her lessons, but wouldn’t be too soon to be teaching her that?”

Nyx shrugged his shoulders. “Noctis is learning, and if Ciel has a natural talent for magic, then I think she should at least try warp striking.” He explained, looking down at her, smiling warmly. “Plus, we’re all going to be there, so if she falls or something, we can catch her.”

Pelna shrugged, looking to Ciel with a smile. “Well, if that happens, and Nyx tries to push you to try again and you don’t wanna, just call for the Captain, he should be around today,” he said, walking off to go back to the couch, seems to be invested in whatever was on the TV.

Ciel looked up to Nyx, a confused look in her eyes. “I thought the Captain would be at the Citadel with everyone?” she asked, wondering why Drautos wouldn’t be there for the meeting.

“Because someone has to be able to respond to emergencies when the King can’t, that is why the Kingsglaive has been formed, not to only fight a war, but to deal with other matters as well,” Nyx explained, leading Ciel out to the training grounds, finding Crowe and Luche out there as well. “Ready?”

Ciel looked to the Nyx, seeing he was holding out a dagger to her, obviously something that she could be able to hold since she was still pretty small and needed to warm on her strength in the near future if she wanted to even think about warping with a sword or something. Easily enough, Ciel picked it up, throwing it into one of the pillars before rushing off towards the edge, Nyx and Libertus calling after her in a panic. With no instruction what so ever, Ciel jumped from the edge focusing on where the dagger was, seeing herself getting there. Reaching for it. Surprisingly enough, disappearing into glass-like sparks of blue, she found herself appear before the dagger, giving her the chance to grab it and dangle there.

“Nyx, I did that correctly right?” She asked, looking back towards the platform, seeing that she managed to draw a crowd, all equally surprised as Nyx and Libertus.

“Well, good to know that you have Nyx’s stomach,” Libertus commented, making sure his voice was loud enough for her to hear from where she was. “Now trying summoning a weapon,”

Ciel pouted. The only thing that she couldn’t do yet, but she was determined, and maybe this was just cocky thinking. Pushing off the wall, leaving the dagger there without even thinking twice, Ciel fell towards the ground, and she thought about a weapon forming in her hand, but all that showed was the sparks, nothing taking shape. She tried not to panic, but with how close the ground was coming, she had closed her eyes, ready for probably her death that was completely her fault. Or at least she thought that before she felt arms around her and she didn’t hit the ground under her.

Slowly opening her eyes, she looked up and paled a little bit at the unimpressed look of the man that had caught her. The green eyes that were staring at her were rather intimidating, but Drautos was always like that, but he was a good captain and kept the Glaive together after all. Though right now, she was going to be getting a rather large ear full from Drautos for getting cocky and possibly blame Nyx for shoving words into her head. Then again, he might have heard Libertus, so he could be the one that got in trouble instead of Nyx for once in his life.

Setting Ciel carefully onto her feet once again, Drautos looked around, sending a glare to the others that were there, clearly not impressed at them at all. “I know I said you could teach her to wrap strike, but poking at her to try something that she clearly can’t do yet is stupid and something dangerous,” Drautos said, his voice expressing how upset he was, but keeping himself under control.

All the Glaives that have gathered around, kind of looked anywhere then where Ciel was with Drautos pretty much in front of her, but the only one that really decided to try anything was Nyx, who came down and walked over to them. “Sorry, sir, I didn’t know that Libertus was going to point that out, he knew of her training but not of her progression,” Nyx said, stopping a foot away from them, clearly giving the captain more than enough space if he so wished to throw unexpected punch at him like he has done in the past if he’s been stressed enough.

Ciel moved past Drautos and went to Nyx’s side, holding onto his hand as she did so, because she didn’t want Nyx to get in trouble again. Drautos looked between them, and sighed. He couldn’t really do anything with her around. “It’s perfectly fine, I shouldn’t be getting mad at you, when it wasn’t you for once,” Drautos said, his eyes shifting from Nyx, behind him to Libertus, who looked like he was really to wet himself now that Drautos’ attention was upon him. “Anyways, Nyx, why not get Ciel out of the compound for now, she’s meant to be relaxing this weekend then working herself up.”

Nyx nodded, leading Ciel away, knowing exactly what the captain meant by that. He was going to be giving Libertus an earful, along with the other Glaives that just stood there and watched what was going on. Ciel didn’t question it, maybe walking around the streets would be better with her time today. At least she got to have dinner with the others later.

The two of them walked along the streets, Ciel was looking at everything, since she hadn’t gotten out much recently due to training, so it was nice. Nyx walked behind her, watching over her as she walked, before finally walking beside her and lead her away from the shops and towards the park. Ciel didn’t mind, she followed after Nyx. If he had a place that he wanted to go to, then she was all for it, since she really had no clue where she wanted to go. Arcade maybe, but she usually only does that with Prompto and Noctis if they have time, and if Ignis and Gladio aren’t busy.

The park was green and full of life. There were younger children running around as their parents sat on the benches talking with each other. Ciel noticed a few students, and she kind of stuck closer to Nyx, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Glaive. “Are you okay?” He asked, stopping her from walking off as she started speeding up. “Something wrong.”

“Nope, everything is fine,” Ciel said, smiling at Nyx, trying to come up with some kind of cover up, remembering that there was an ice cream shop on the other side of the park that she liked going to with her mother when she’s not busy. “There’s an ice cream shop here that I like going to with mom,”

Nyx nodded his head, not waving it off as nothing, but he followed after her, watching her a little more closely, hoping that he could figure out what go her so anxious. He wanted to bring up the matter about the boy that came up to them about her getting bullied, more like beaten up, but she played it off so well. Nobody knew if the boy was lying or not. He didn’t want to stress Ciel out either, the girl had so much on her already that telling her about this might just make things spin out of control. Glancing behind him, he was surprised to see the kids probably the same age as Ciel, eyes following after her, actually, they were envious, but with rather dark intents behind them. Looking after Ciel, seeing that she was waiting at the front of the shop for him, Nyx picked up his speed. Gladio had told them that Ciel said that nothing like that was going on, but Nyx was beginning to think that she was somehow managing to throw them off.

The two walked into the shop together, Ciel went to start looking at the different flavors that they had in as Nyx kind of hung back and watching Ciel’s movements for a moment longer before joining in as well. “We past by other kids your age, but you want ice cream,” he commented, looking over the flavors himself, curious as what they could have. He was willing to try something new, but he did like the original flavors that he grew up on, still not use to all this fancy stuff.  

Ciel paused from her search, and looked up to Nyx, she was silent for a few moments, just shrugging her shoulders. “It’s no big deal, they’re just classmates, not like I’m friends with them,” She said, going back to her search for the perfect ice cream flavor that she wanted. “Plus, I don’t really talk to them either, so it would be awkward to just go up there and start hanging out with them.”

“But wouldn’t it be nice to have friends outside of Prompto and Noctis?” Nyx asked, looking over the flavors still as well, he might end up trusting Ciel’s judgement on this since she’s never failed him in the past.

“I’m friends with Ignis, Gladio, Iris and all of the Glaive too, I’m not really short of friends,” Ciel said, before finally stopping in her search, her eyes landing on cookies and cream. Now, Nyx can get behind that one since he did enjoy it. “And I’m happy with the friends I have,”

Nyx looked down at the younger girl. It was hard to believe that she was going to be in High School soon, another year, and she would be a young woman. She was growing rather quickly, she might be the same height as Noctis right now, and Prompto as well if he thought about it. Though she was raised along side Noctis, she shared some traits with him that stood out. There even had been gossip that Ciel was the bastard child of the King, but those were soon put to rest by Evelyka as soon as it got to her, which was rather quickly with how the maids in the Citadel enjoyed to chat about the latest gossip.

“Ciel, you would tell us if something was going on at school right?” Nyx finally asked, biting his lower lip in hope that he didn’t upset her in anyway.

Ciel was about to order for them both, when she closed her mouth, looking to Nyx once again. He was surprised to see her actually look unsure of herself right now. Nyx was about to question it before Ciel looked back to the man, placing their orders in. “Of course I would,” she finally replied, still not looking at Nyx. “It’s kind of funny, Gladio asked me the same thing the other day, did something happen?”

“Um, apparently a student from your class came to the Citadel to tell your mother that you’ve been getting bullied, but you’ve never mentioned anything like that to anyone, so, we just weren’t sure if you would be honest with us if we came out and asked you all together,” Nyx explained, knowing that Ciel wasn’t stupid, so he really couldn’t have lied to her if he wanted to. Especially if someone had asked her a similar question recently. “Your mother is worried and she doesn’t know how to approach the subject with you,”

“I would tell you guys, I swear,” Ciel said, taking the ice cream from the man, and holding them both as Nyx paid. Nyx took his cone from her as they both left the shop, beginning their walk through the streets once again. Nyx actually didn’t want to see the look on those children’s faces once again. The way they looked at Cile like she was just a waste of space or something. He didn’t like it. But she acted like they never even existed.

Their time went on. Finally, it was time to head to Yama’s for dinner. Everyone was waiting, Nyx had made a quick stop at his place to grab a hoodie for Ciel to wrap up in, it was rather cold out and he didn’t want her getting cold. The group was lively as always. Ciel was talking more now with the other around. Nyx kind of felt bad for bringing that up to Ciel like he. She barely talked much after all that. Nyx had gotten worried that Ciel felt a bit betrayed that nobody trusted her. Now though, he was beginning to believe that it might be just the shocked or the fact that some kid was trying to weasel his way into friendships with the Prince by starting fact rumors like that.

It was getting later, and Nyx finally received a text message from someone. It wasn’t Evelyka though. It was Clarus, asking Nyx if he could escort Ciel back to the Amicitia manor where she would be staying the night. Looking up from his phone, he saw that the girl was getting tired as she was resting in Luche’s lap, her head rested against his shoulder, eyes holding that dazed look of needing sleep. Nyx knew that it was a good time to get going. Saying goodbye to everyone, Nyx carried Ciel all the way to the Amicitia manor, where he was greeted by the butler, Jared Hester. Ciel was nodding off on his shoulder, has been for a while now.

“Ah, Nyx, I see Ciel has had a day worth of fun,” Jared said, moving out of the way, letting Nyx come in to put Ciel to bed.

“Where should I put her?” Nyx asked, looking around the manor, not sure where he needs to be going.

Jared chuckled at Nyx’s confused expression, it was always interesting to see how people reacted in these situations, but then again, Ciel was usually awake still when she was in the care of the Glaives. “Up the stairs, first door on the left,” Jared instructed, pointing towards the stairs that was right in front of them.

Nyx gave a nod of thanks to Jared before heading up the stairs, being quiet since he wasn’t sure if Clarus’ daugher had been brought home by Ignis yet since he was in charge of the younger Amicitia that day. Getting to the first door, Nyx carefully opened it up to reveal a room that was clearly in use. Turning on the light, Nyx figured out pretty quickly who’s room this belonged to. Glancing around as he carried Ciel to the bed, taking off her shoes and socks carefully before setting them at the foot of the bed before pulling back the blanket and resting her upon the mattress. Nyx tucked her in, watching her curl up, a soft smile upon her face as she finally got comfortable.

“I think I’m glad I arrived home when I did, I don’t think I would be sleeping in my bed if I got home any later.”

Nyx looked towards the door, seeing Gladio standing there, leaning against the frame. His hair looked out of place, a little rugged, obviously growing it out now that he was getting older and further up there in rank. He was in his usual Crownguard uniform, but the jacket was undone, and his boots already unlaced. Nyx officially came to the conclusion that Gladio was just as tired as Ciel, especially after whatever meetings were happening today.

“I’m going to guess that the meeting was rough,” Nyx said, moving away from the bed, giving Gladio a chance to come into his room and start getting ready for bed himself. “Anything worth sharing?”

Gladio took a seat on the chair at the desk, resting his jacket on the back, as she sat down to take off his boots, followed by his socks. Rubbing the back of his neck to get the stiffness out of it after sitting for some rather long hours that he did not enjoy. “Just a lot of arguing, and I honestly don’t think anything got solved,” Gladio said, finally getting to his feet once more to remove the shirt and his belt, resting them both on the chair he was previously seated on. “It was hard to keep up with voices just continuously going over top of each other, I gave up trying to keep up like five minutes in.”

Gladio pulled out a pair of sweatpants, throwing them over his shoulder as he finally took off his pants, leaving him in rather tight boxers that formed around his waist nicely. Nyx nodded his head, he understood the meetings, he was on guard duty for time on occasions, and he couldn’t believe that the King could keep up with all of that. Maybe it had something to with Noctis and Ciel telling him about something interesting or something they were passionate about, that would give the King good practice to deal with such chaos within that room.  

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Nyx agreed, wondering if he should be going now, but a questioned popped up into his mind suddenly. Looking at the young Crownguard; that was currently putting on his sweatpants, Nyx took a shot. “Does Ciel always sleep with you?”

Gladio was walking towards the bed, and already getting in when Nyx asked. Gladio laid down, looking over at Ciel who was on the other side from him, knowing that they would both end up in the middle by morning, Ciel curled up into his side. “Yeah, she ended up getting lost to the guest bedroom the first night she slept here, and ended up in my bed, because she didn’t want to bother dad for directions,” he said, thinking back to when he found a much smaller girl in his bed, completely passed out because she was waiting for him to come up. “She was up for a few hours longer than her bed time, ended up just falling asleep her waiting for me. Since then, just kind of ended up this way,”

Nyx nodded his head, before heading towards the door, his hand was on the knob when his mind flashed back to those children at the park. “Hey, Gladio,” he said, turning around to face the man in bed. “Watch out for those children in Ciel’s class… I don’t like the idea of the Prince or Ciel being with them alone,”

Gladio eyed Nyx, sitting up a bit in bed to get a better look at the man. “Did something happen today?” Gladio asked, clearly concerned now.

Nyx looked down to the sleeping girl. He didn’t want to risk her waking up and getting upset. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” he said, taking a deep breath. As much as he wanted to talk about it now, it wasn’t a good time or the right place. They would talk about it tomorrow when Ciel wasn’t around, and probably have Evelyka with them as well. “Sleep well, Gladio, and make sure you don’t crush her when turning over.”

Gladio laughed, chucking a pillow at Nyx, which the Glaive caught, tossing it back to the man. Giving a simply nod of his head, Nyx left, leaving Ciel in the care of Gladio. At least Nyx had someone he could trust to keep her safe. He may not express it well enough, but Ciel was pretty much like a little sister to him. Though, she was never gonna replace Selena, but she kind of just became apart of his life and became his family. Evelyka treated Nyx as a son anyways. And Nyx knew that his mother would be proud that he was moving on with his life, grateful that another family had taken him in. To have a place to go if he needed it. He was going to protect his sister, because he’s done the same with Selena and he was willing to do it again for the girl that was resting in the bed of a man that knew what Nyx thinks like when it comes to younger siblings.

Gladio listened to Nyx’s foot faults disappear, and the door to the front closing. Finally relaxing more into his bed, he had something to look forward to at least. Though Ciel wasn’t letting anything on, Gladio had a gut feeling that something was up. And he knew to trust his gut. Watching the girl sleep next to him, curled up in a blanket and a hoodie that obviously belonged to Nyx, a soft smile on her lips still. He could hardly believe that he use to hold her in his arms when he was only four years old and she was just a newborn. She had changed a lot over the years, and she was going to continue changing. When you’ve known someone since birth, it was always amazing to watch the changes. Especially with Noctis. He use to be such a brat but he was getting better now, thanks to Ciel. Even more now with Prompto in his life as well.

Letting his eyes closed, Gladio needed to get some sleep, he still had a rather busy day tomorrow, but it was something to look forward to. Seeing as there was no sitting around and he was most likely going to be on his feet for most of the day. Rolling onto his side, he reached over, pulling the girl to his body, feeling her cuddle into his warmth. Gladio smiled as well.

Once she started High School, they weren’t going to be able to do this many more. He was going to have to start cutting her back from this. As much as he hated it. But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. And she wouldn’t be staying over her much either. This next year a bit, there was going to be a lot of changes going on. Hopefully when Ciel gets worked up, words would be able to ease that restless mind of hers.


	3. Chapter Three -May Flowers Wilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been about two years since the events of the first two chapters and Ciel along with her best friends officially start High School. What will be in store for Ciel now that she's becoming more of a women?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, peeps, new chapter is here and drama is starting to heat up! We are also in a bit of a time skip as well! I would like to note, that yes, I know that Prompto and Noctis don't meet officially until High School, but for the sake of the fanfiction, I decided to push it back that they meet in Middle School. Also, if you all want to know who's who when it comes to the contact names during text messages, I'll add them at the start of the next chapter, so drop me a comment, and there will be a possibility that they will be changing as well as the story continues. So, enjoy~

The mirror that hung up on her wall was perfectly place, her mother had put a lot of care of hanging it there about a week ago, going on about how it would be good to look at herself in the mirror that very morning that she was talking a new step in her life. Truth be told, she hated it. It made her uncomfortable and she felt sexualized due to the skirt being too short. At least it felt that way. Sighing, grabbing her hair in her hand, pulling it back to tie it up from her face.

Ciel was officially in High School starting today. The day that everyone has been dreaming about since last year. Noctis got really sour about it before the summer began since he was that much closer to having to do his kingly duties. It was exciting to see Prompto, he had taken up this photo game thing during the summer, so Noctis and Ciel didn’t really get a chance to see him, so, today was going to be good seeing their blonde friend again. Since he’s been hinting at something while on snapchat, it was driving Noctis up the wall since he wanted to know what it was about. At least they would find out today.

Giving herself a once over, she grabbed her bag before heading downstairs to see what her mother was cooking up for breakfast, but was honestly surprised to see Cor there at the stove in sweatpants. She didn’t want to know, because she had a pretty good feeling she knew what had happened the previous night after she had fallen asleep.

“Morning Cor, see you had a rather eventful night,” Ciel teased the Immoral as she went to the fridge to grab out her water bottle that she put in there last night, along with a protein drink for later.

Cor chuckled behind her, taking his eyes off the stove to look at the girl leaning against the counter behind him. “I’m surprised you managed to sleep through it.” Cor stated, only to laugh harder at disturbed look on Ciel’s face from the mental image she might have got from that. “I heard you were at the Amicitia’s last night.”

Ciel took a deep breath, grabbing a thing of juice from the fridge, and started to sip at it through the straw. “Yeah, since you and mom weren’t back from whatever business that you had outside of Insomnia, Iris kind of dragged me over,” she said, thinking back on the pervious night. She had almost passed out there if it hadn’t been for Clarus making sure that she got home for school today. “I helped Iris pick out her outfit for today, gave her my input on about some clothes that she was designing, and after dinner we sparred in the backyard together since she needed to the practice,”

Cor was beginning to plate the food by now, and Ciel was impressed by the full meal that he had made for them all. She was thankful that Cor was here, since her mom was obviously still in bed. He handed a plate to her, which she took gratefully and started to eat. “No Gladio?” Cor asked, raising an eyebrow as he started on his own food as well. Ciel shook her head, not having a comment on that right now. This seemed to have raised a red flag in Cor’s mind. “Okay, is something up between you and Gladio? You both use to be joint at the hip, now I hear about you being at training with him.”

Ciel shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t know anymore herself. Last year, things were going well, yeah, they started to kind of cutting their time between each other, and she started to sleep in the guest room more when she was with the Amicitia’s for the night. Yet, this summer, Gladio kind just cut all of his ties with her. Barely texting, barely seeing her outside of training and it hurt. A lot. Hell, he barely talked to her either while at training. She wanted to think it was because Gladio was nineteen and he was enjoying his life when he had a chance. Maybe he had gotten a girlfriend… That thought stung. Cor was watching her, she had been silent for awhile now, but the look of hurt and sadness didn’t go unnoticed by the Marshal. He was going to have to give that boy a good talking to.

“Good morning!” a voice rang out in the kitchen, and Ciel was suddenly brought into the arms of her mother. “Ah, look at how big our girl as grown!”

Cor rolled his eyes, going along with Evelyka’s madness. “Yeah, she sure has, though I pray none of the boys try anything on while wearing that skirt, like what happened from when we were in school to make skirts that short?” Cor questioned, shaking his head, obviously not liking the fact that the skirt was so short.

Evelyka shrugged her shoulders, she obviously didn’t know the answer. “The only thing that I could give you is because it’s public school, no private,” she said, letting her daughter go to eat some of her breakfast that was waiting for her.

“Okay, question, is this going to be a regular thing?” Ciel asked, using her fork to point at the two of them, rather curious of what could possibly be happening. “Like are you two going to start dating or something? Like I don’t mind you dating Cor, like he’s cool, but I just want to be mentally prepared for the middle of the night,”

Cor looked to Evelyka, for probably a first time in awhile, Cor didn’t have an answer for something. Evelyka was snacking on a bit of her bacon, in thought. “Well, I mean, I don’t see any harm, I mean, if you’re okay with that,” she said, looking between the Marshal and her daughter.

Ciel smiled, rolling her eyes. “Mom, I just want you to be happy, and Cor is pretty much the only guy I would allow you to date,” she said, laughing softly as she started on finishing up her breakfast, since she told Prompto that she would walk with him to school today.

Evelyka laughed, resting her head upon Cor’s shoulder, slightly embarrassed by her daughter but she was glad. “I hope you know that I am going to be bugging you about having a boyfriend when you get one,” Evelyka said to Ciel, and she started laughing, shaking her head.

“Me? With a boyfriend?” Ciel asked, finding that like it was the funniest joke in the world. Cor and Evelyka shared a confused look before looking back to the teenager. “What? You honestly think I’ll have a boyfriend? I have a job to the crown, just like the both of you, I gotta make sure Noctis is safe at school, kind of taking Shield duties from Gladio but that’s how it is. I wouldn’t have time for dating, and I have to be careful with who I date too,”

Cor sighed, reaching around Evelyka to pull Ciel to them, he ruffled up her hair, causing her to let out a grumble about how he had messed it up. “You’re still have a life you gotta live,” Cor said, looking at her, blue eyes staring back into his own. “What are you going to do when you’re going to need to get married? Let your mother and the King choose for you?”

Ciel shrugged her shoulders. “If it has to be that way, then so be it,” she said, honestly not caring if it had to come to that. “But I got a pact with Noctis and Prompto, if any of us aren’t in a relationship or married by the time we are twenty-five, then I’ll be married one of them. If they are both married by then, Ignis said he would be more than glad to marry. So, I got this.”

“Seems like you have your life planned out,” Evelyka commented, amazed by how her daughter has this all planned out. “But I thought you were determined to marry Gladio.”

Ciel’s entire face lit up like a red light at four way stop, Cor was surprised by that, since he’s seen her blush before but not like this. Also, she was determined to marry Gladio. “Clarus would probably be on board with you being apart of his family, especially if Gladio does get his ass settled down,” Cor commented, chuckling a bit as her face was only going a brighter shade of red.

“I WAS SIX WHEN I SAID!” Ciel stated, her voice raising in a bit, clearly embarrassed about that. She turned away, and rinsed her plate before placing it into the washing machine, before she slipped on her boots. “Anyways… I gotta go to school, I promised Prompto I would walk with him.”

Evelyka walked over to Ciel, pulling her into a hug before resting a kiss upon her head and smiling down at her. “I’m sorry, dear, I had to, you are growing up so quickly, it felt like just yesterday that you declared that,” She said, handing Ciel her bag. “Have a good day, don’t forget you have training after school today.”

Ciel rolled her eyes, kissing her mom on her cheek, before waving to Cor. “Bye Cor, make sure mom doesn’t over do it in the infirmary today!” She said, rushing out the door, leaving the two adults there, watching after her.

“She really has grown up,” Cor commented, laughing a bit, shaking his head.

Evelyka looked to Cor, and smiled warmly. “She’s a real firecracker too,” she said, eyeing Cor with a smirk upon her lips. “Kind of reminds me of another firecracker who was the same age as her in the past,”

Cor sent a glare to Evelyka, earning himself a laugh from the woman that rested her head against back against his chest when she was back at his side, wrapping an arm around her, he ended up chuckling. She was correct, that girl was a real firecracker, just like he was back in his past. Hopefully, nobody bothered her about being friends with Noctis.

\-------------------------

Ciel managed to get to the four way, and she was shocked to see who was there waiting. There was no way, at least she kept telling herself that there was no way that was the boy she saw before the summer started. She started picking up speed, and threw herself into the boy. “Prompto!” she greeted, hugging the boy closer to her. “By the Six, you look amazing!” She pulled back, looking at the boy closely. He lost so much weight when he was away, the outdoors must have done a lot of things for him.

Prompto laughed, hugging back, smiling softly at Ciel. “Hey, thanks, I had put a lot of work this summer, I would like to think it was because I was doing a lot of walking while looking for good photos.” He said, rubbing the back of his head, smiling widely. “I think Noc is going to freak, he was losing it in the chat last night.”

“I know, I was laughing while I was at the Amicitia’s.” Ciel said, laughing at the memory of last night when she got the chance to text them while she relaxed in Iris’ room.

“Oh, you’re hanging out with Gladio again finally?” Prompto asked, surprised that she was actually over at the manor after spending the entire summer at home or with Noctis.

Ciel shook her head, sighing. “Nope, I was with Iris. Clarus made sure I got home last night,” she said, looking at her feet, kicking a rock ahead of them. “I was hoping that Gladio would be home sooner, that I could talk to him, but Iris said that he probably ended up staying at the Citadel,”

Prompto looked worryingly at Ciel. She had been bummed out most of the summer due to Gladio pretty much up and disappearing on her like that. Noctis had been pretty pissed off when he found out about it, was ready to order Gladio to give an explanation as to why, but Ciel just pushed it aside, just like everything else. “You really should just get Noctis to order him to talk to you about this, it’s bothering you obviously,” he said, knowing that Ciel was being a bit more expressive with her emotions then she had been in the past.

“What’s it going to do? He’ll probably just lie, or come up with some excuse,” she said, sounding frustrated now. It was really bugging her. Did she do something wrong? She didn’t know. “I’m debating if I should just ask Clarus to train me since Gladio isn’t giving any feedback whatsoever.”

Prompto flinched a little bit at that last bit. This was really getting bad. Gladio and Ciel were pretty close, then Gladio just kind of slammed the door shut on her without any kind of reason. “Are you sure you don’t want Noct to do anything about it?” He asked, wondering if it was going to change her mind within the last minute or so.

Ciel looked to Prompto, before sighing again. It was obvious now that she didn’t even have the will to do anything about it. Prompto knew she wasn’t the one for giving up, but if two months of Gladio pretty much shutting her out is what it took, it was something really hard that she had to do.

The rest of the walk to school was in silence, and when they arrived, Noctis had just arrived too. He saw the two, running away from Ignis, smiling at the two, though that smile was slowly slipping when he saw the look on Ciel’s face. Prompto was trying to keep that smile on his face, but it finally slipped off as well once Noctis reached them.

“I am seriously ready to rip is face off,” Noctis said, clearly not happy either. Two months he had to watch this. If Ciel was hanging out with him, Gladio would either be silent and act like a guard, or Nyx would be filling in his position. If Ciel knew ahead of time that Gladio was going to be there, she would make some excuse and be off with the Glaives. “This is just getting out of hand, and you leave training more down and stressed each time. This isn’t fair on you, and you don’t deserve it.”

“Noctis, honestly, I don’t care anymore, I’m going to talk to Clarus about getting trained by someone else,” Ciel said, walking past Noctis, going over to Ignis, but she freezed at the sight of the person of topic step out of the car. She turned, not bothering to even go to Ignis, and walked into the courtyard, not waiting up for the two of them.

Prompto sighed, looking to Noctis, who nodded his head. With that, Prompto started off into a slow jog, nodding to Ignis as he passed him before he went to catch up to Ciel, knowing that she was doing the wise thing of walking away before she fucking blasted Gladio into next week. She was waiting by the tree in the middle of the courtyard, sitting on the bench, elbow rested on her knee, head propped against her hand while she was scrolling through her phone. He took a seat next to her, and Noctis arrived not much long after, he looked at the two of them before sitting on the other side of her, letting out a sigh.

“I know you’ve given up, but I know you’re going to be stubborn and get him cornered,” Noctis said, earning a glance from Ciel, catching her interest. “You may not realize it now, but you do still care, and it’s hurting you right now. You have training today with him, let your frustration out on him, it’ll catch him off guard and you’ll drop him on his ass. Perfect time to demand some answers.”

Ciel let the idea run through her head, finally admitting defeat, she smiled at Noctis. “No matter what, you always manage to figure me out before I do,” she said, shaking her head, clearly just not understanding Noctis’ amazing gift. “We should head to class, last thing we need is to be late and lectured.”

The three of them had gotten to their feet heading off to class, all the stares and talk about the three of them. Probably utterly confused as to who the blonde was, but there had been a few shock gasps once they figured out it was Prompto. Ciel joked that Prompto was going to end up getting a fan club, and many of the girls would be wanting to be with him. That earned a laugh from Noctis saying that they would only come out Prompto because he was too out of their league. That earned their Prince and swift punch to the arm by Prompto, glaring that the Prince. Luckily Noctis was forgiven at lunch time when he shared the treats Ignis had baked yesterday night.

Their first day of classes had finished rather quickly due to it being the first day, and it was only a half day. Prompto was going over to Noctis’ apartment after school since he wasn’t there when the Prince had moved in due to camp. Ciel was off to the Citadel, which Ignis kindly drove her to, since he didn’t want her to be in trouble for being late. Ciel promised that she would meet the boys at the apartment later, and asking Ignis to make sure he cooked enough food for them all. Of course, he smiled, saying that he knew that he was going to need to anyways.

She walked into the Citadel with ease, noting the new paintings that were hanging up, finding that they had improved a lot more than the previous paintings that were there. Ciel almost went to the infirmary to see what her mother was up to, but decided against that, knowing that her mother would catch onto the sour mood Ciel had slipped into once she stepped through the doors. Going to the locker room, she opened her locker, getting changed into her gear before heading into the training hall. To her shocked, Gladio wasn’t there waiting.

She doubled checked the area real quick, making sure that this wasn’t some kind of surprise training, but literally nobody else was in the room. So, Ciel started doing her stretches and her warm-up’s like any start to training. When Gladio still hadn’t arrived, Ciel began practicing on her own. Working on things that she wasn’t good at previously. A good two hours had passed by then, and he still hadn’t arrived. Ciel had pulled out her phone at this point and texted Ignis.

 

{Pupu}  
- _Hey, Iggy, has Gladio texted you at all?_ -sent @3:10pm-  
{Iggy}  
- _No, I haven’t. Why?_ -delivered @3:11pm-  
{Pupu}  
- _It’s been two hours and he hasn’t shown up..._ -sent @3:14pm-  
{Iggy}  
- _Message Clarus and Cor, maybe they might know._ -delivered @3:16pm-

 

Starting up a chat conversation between the three of them, so she didn’t have to worry about changing tabs to read messages from either men. She started typing out the message to send to them. Hoping that either of them weren’t busy right now.

 

{Pupu}  
- _Marshal, Clarus; have either of you seen or heard from Gladiolus within the last three hours?_ -sent

 

Ciel had taken a seat on the bench now, taking a break from standing until someone replies to her about Gladio’s location, so, she can storm over there and break his nose. But she was worried as well, deep down, she was hoping that nothing was wrong since it wasn’t like Gladio to skip a training session like this with no word to anyone.

 

{Marshal}  
- _The last I saw him was at Lunch. Isn’t he with you?_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _I’ve been here for two hours, no Gladio, and he hasn’t shown up._ -sent  
{Marshal}  
- _Have you texted him?_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Not like he would answer_ -sent  
{Clarus}  
- _Gladio hasn’t arrived? I saw him two hours ago, maybe thirty minutes before your training was meant to begin_ -sent  
- _And what is this about Gladio not answering your messages?_ -sent  
{Marshal}  
- _You haven’t heard? For the last two months, Gladio apparently has been just silent to Ciel. Regis heard about, apparently Noctis flipped out when he found out_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Who told you all of that?_ -sent  
{Marshal}  
- _Ignis. Noctis had been going off about it over the summer whenever he asked how your training had went._ -sent  
{Clarus}  
- _Why wasn’t I told of this sooner?_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _To be honest with you, I thought it was something to do with him being 19, and that he would snap back… apparently not._ -sent  
{Marshal}  
- _I tried to call him, he’s not answering his phone._ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Where did you seen him last, Clarus?_ -sent  
{Clarus}  
- _Towards the living quarters. He might had been going back to his room._ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _I’ll go deal with him._ -sent

 

Ciel got to her feet, leaving the training room to guide herself through the walls of the Citadel. She had thought over the summer about possibly moving here like Gladio had been doing. Though he does still spend a bit of time here, she thought that it would be wise to get a room here as well since she also spends a rather large amount of time her as well, and it was only going to increase over time. She knew where Gladio’s room was, since he had gotten the room last year before the summer and she kind of helped move some of his stuff over. She even stayed a few nights there with him. Once the summer started, she hadn’t been back there since, or even to the manor before she was with Iris the previous night.

Yet here she was again, standing outside the door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked. Waiting there for a few seconds, getting no response. She knocked again, wondering if he was just asleep. Again, nothing. Finally, she was banged on the door, and something smacked it, like a shoe. Okay, that was it.

Ciel banged on the door, showing her frustration with the man. “Seriously!? You think you have the right to not show up for training, when I’ve been arriving on time for a solid two years now!” She yelled, only to get another shoe to be thrown at the door. Her hand grabbed onto the handle, turning it easily, before shoving the door open. “OKAY. WHAT IS YOUR-”

As soon as she walked into the room, her words died on her lips. What she saw actually caused her to back up. There was Gladio, mostly naked, with some chick on top of him, completely naked… his manhood inside of her, and the two of them were both staring at her. Gladio had this look of shock and annoyed, but the chick was utterly pissed off, clearly not happy that Ciel had just barged in like that. Words failed Ciel right now, and she was confused as to why her eyes were burning, and she needed to bite onto her lower to lip to keep it from quaking. Her chest left like it was collapsing in on itself, rather painfully. Ciel turned around, slamming the door shut behind her as she raced off. Her vision was going blurry and just reality seemed to be completely messed up. Grabbing her things, she rushed from the Citadel.

She texted Noctis, letting him know that she wasn’t coming over, that she just wanted to be alone right now and would message both him and Prompto later once she was in a better set of mind. Ciel arrived home quicker than she ever head and just went straight to her room where she collapsed onto her bed, finally breaking into sobs. The image that she was left with was burned into her mind, and it only caused the sobs to come out harsher, making breath difficult. It felt like hours before she finally calmed down. Though, she was confused when she finally woke up, a gentle hand stroking her hair. Weakly looking up, she saw her mother sitting there, looking down at her daughter with worried eyes.

“Sweetie, how are you feeling?” Evelyka asked, her voice soft, and showing the concerned that she held for her daughter. She saw the tear stains against her cheeks, and her eyes red and puffy from crying for such a long time.

Ciel was confused for a moment, before her stomach dropped suddenly and she felt sick all over again. She buried her face into her pillow, another set of crying beginning. Evelyka crawled into her daughter’s bed, cuddling her into her chest, letting the tears soak into her shirt. She hadn’t seen her daughter like this since the news about Noctis’ accident when they were eight. It was to assume that it had something to do with Gladio. Noctis and Prompto had arrived at the Citadel, Prompto was trying to calm the Prince, but he stormed up to his father, and Clarus, demanding that Gladio went back to training or something. Everyone was confused why, but when Noctis explained about what has been happening all summer, filling in the rest of the details in for the people who knew about what was going on, and told them about the most recent message he had gotten from her. Evelyka had rushed home, hoping that her daughter was there and not off somewhere alone. Shoes and bag dumped at the door confirmed for the mother that her daughter had made it home, going straight to the bedroom, she was greeted by the sight of her daughter passed out, and crying softly in her sleep.

Evelyka let Noctis and Prompto know that she made it home, and they had asked if they could come see her. Being the mother she was, she told them that it would be best to wait for now and that she would let them know how she was once she was awake.

Ciel had passed out again, it was a clear sign that it was going to be awhile before she was going to be able to pull herself together to even communicate with. Evelyka stayed the entire night there. When she awoke, she was surprised to see Cor there, asleep on the small couch that Ciel placed in her room. Pressing a kiss to her daughter's head, Evelyka closed her eyes again, just wanting to rest a little bit more, knowing that she was going to need the energy.

\----------------------------

Her eyes felt swollen, her body ached, and she still felt rather sick. Though she forced herself awake, she noticed that a slight difference in her room. There was pillows and blankets upon her small couch, and some glasses around it. Oddly enough, she was on her back now too when she remembered that she had been laying on her stomach when she raced home… How long has it been since she last awoke? Well, if she had to go by the IV in her arm, she was going to say awhile. On her bedside table where cards and some small gifts. What surprised her was the gladiolus flowers that rested in a vase, with no card or name with them, only a handful of people knew that she loved them, but that might start changing soon. Slowly bringing herself into a sitting position, she started to read over the cards, seeing that they were from everyone that knew her. Finally, her eyes landed on her phone, she picked it up to check the date.

Ciel let out a groan. She had missed three weeks of school, the month was almost over, but what managed to make her feel worse was the fact that she managed to fall into a coma, probably freaking her mother out a lot. Not only her, but Noctis and Prompto as well. Six, the stress that must have been placed on Ignis. And her body was another story. It felt heavy, numb and stiff from laying there like she had been. She almost wanted to call Noctis, but she was going to be in class right now with Prompto. Ciel was going to need Ignis’ help to catch her up if she wanted to even think about catching up. Let’s not even get started on all the training she missed out.

Laying back down, throwing logic to the wind, Ciel opened up the group chat, messaging Noctis and Prompto, hoping that she wasn’t bothering them.

 

{Pupu}  
- _So, I am alive. Now. Like I honestly can’t believe I lost three weeks of my life._ -sent  
{Chocobo}  
- _CIEL! OH THANK THE SIX_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _Fuck…. I thought we were going to loose you…_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _I just woke. Sorry for just sleeping…_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _It’s fine, just as long as you don’t die, I think we’ll be good_ -sent  
- _...So, what happened? Gladio looked pretty freaked out when he found out that you slipped into a coma_ -sent  
{Chocobo}  
- _You don’t have to tell us._ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _....I think it would be better if you guys came over in person… This is going to take a lot of explaining, and I need the company, as well as getting to move around again_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _I’m going to add Ignis into the chat, he shouldn’t be doing anything, they kind of cut back drastically on meetings due to you falling into a coma_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Wait...what? Your father cut back on meetings because I fell into a coma?_ -sent  
{Iggy}  
- _Yes, well, the King was rather worried as well… A lot of us have been worried_ -sent  
- _I’m glad to see that you are functioning like you would_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _Okay, Ignis_ -sent  
- _I can’t believe I’m doing this_ -sent  
- _But can you go over to Ciel’s and go and cook them food? Ciel probably needs it and who knows what the Marshal and her mother have been eating this entire time_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Wait? Cor has been staying here?_ -sent  
{Chocobo}  
- _Yeah, the Marshal has been there the entire time. Sleeps in your room most of the time as well._ -sent  
- _Isn’t he there right now?_ -sent

 

Ciel looked around, wondering if Cor had passed out somewhere else, but there was nobody there. Feeling a bit adventurous, she got back to an upright position, carefully removing the IV from her arm, she got up to her feet. Her legs were wobbly, but she could stand surprisingly. Proud herself, she began to walk, slowly, carefully, and she got to her door. She opened it, and took her time going from the second floor to the first. Ciel could already tell that her mother wasn’t at the house by how it was too quiet, and the fact she wasn’t by her side. Getting into the kitchen, she saw that Cor was slouched over the sink, sleeping. He looked so tired. Ciel pulled up her phone, turning off the sound before taking a picture.

 

{Pupu}  
+image attached  
- _I’ve never seen Cor like this before…_ -sent  
{Chocobo}  
- _He looks tired… yet less intense_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _He really must care about your mom_ -sent  
{Pupu}  
- _Yeah… He does._ -sent

 

Putting her phone against the table, Ciel walked over to Cor, softly resting a hand upon his shoulder, causing the man to startle and looked at her, his looking rather glassy due to lack of sleep. When his brain finally registered that she as there, Cor had pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Ciel felt all the tense muscles in his body all release at once at the sight to see her wake again. She would be too. Hugging Cor back, she rested her head against his chest, feeling much better about being awake.

Cor pulled back from the embrace, looking down at the almost fifteen year old in his arms. “How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice sounded much deeper then she remembered it being. He must have been seriously worried, and not only for her, but her mother as well. “Why didn’t you call?”

“Going bed crazy as soon as I opened my eyes.” Ciel said, laughing a bit before coughing. Her mouth felt like sandpaper, and her throat was parched.

Cor was already on the move once again. Getting a cup, water within in her face before she could even ask for a glass. Taking it, Ciel just shot that glass back, and Cor filled it up once again when she was finished, this time, she started to take her time with it. She leaned against the counter, and Cor stood there, neither of them sure of what to stay. The knock at the door gave either of them an out. Ciel setted the glass down, going to get the door. She opened it, and was greeted by chest. Her chest tightened up, before she glanced up and saw amber eyes looking upon her. Ciel did what she thought was a safe choice, she slammed the door in his face, locking it behind her. Cor was at the end of the hallway, he saw who it was, but didn’t make any form of movement to try and even talk to the young Shield. Ciel walked passed Cor, going straight to her bedroom. The guts he had to even show up after what happened three weeks ago. Pulling out her phone, she opened up the group chat once again.

 

{Pupu}  
- _Noctis, please tell your Shield that he is not welcome on my doorstep_ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _Um, how ironic, because he just messaged me about when I was going to tell him about you being awake_ -sent  
- _But I will tell him_ -sent  
{Chocobo}  
- _Well shit_ -sent

 

Ciel’s phone notified her that she had yet another text message, she saw that it was from Gladio. She glared, opening it out of spite.

 

{BLOCKED}  
- _Ciel, come on, open the door. Cor just said that he wouldn’t do anything because this isn’t his house and you have every right to do that. Please, I want to talk._ -sent @10:45am  
- _Did you really just tell Noctis to order me to not come back to your house?_ -sent @10:47am  
- _Ciel, please_ -sent @10:50am  
{Pupu}  
- _I’m pretty sure the door in your face should have been a perfect message._ -sent @10:52am  
- _Now, go away. I don’t want to see you anywhere near my place, the school and when I am training ever again_ -sent @10:53am  
{BLOCKED}  
- _Ciel, this isn’t fair. Don’t I deserve a chance to explain this to you?_ -sent @10:55am  
{Pupu}  
- _Gladio, please, just go away._ -sent @10:57am

 

No more messages came from her phone. Setting her phone aside, she looked at the gladiolus flowers before getting up and grabbing the vase and leaving her room, going downstairs, she placed the vase on the living room table. Cor watched this, watching her leave them there before disappearing to her room once again. The sound of her bedroom door closing, Cor went into the living room, pulling the small card that was hidden among the flowers. Gladio’s writing was upon it, along with a short little apology. Cor glance towards where Ciel’s room was, and placed the card back where it was hidden. He wasn’t going to go up there and tell her what she should do, she was going to need time to find her own answers.


	4. Chapter Four - Always Calling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, would you look at that, a new chapter c:   
> Anyways, a lot is about to be happening the next few chapters. Please enjoy c:

It had been a couple of week already since Ciel had awoken, and she had managed to quickly get back on track with everything in her life. Training had been transferred over to the Glaives under her request, seeing as she hadn’t seen Gladio since she woke up, and she was keeping it that way… At least not on the same level of view…

Since she hadn’t stepped anywhere the Amicita manor or even another Amicitia during this time, and by some curse from the Astral’s, Ciel would be in the streets and there was Gladio, and always a different girl tucked under his arm. She so badly wished that she could walk right over there and knock him to the ground, but of course, she would turn a blind eye due to her gut tightening to an uncomfortable level, almost like she was going to lose her lunch, and each encounter like that would lead to Ciel never leaving her room that night.

Evelyka and Cor were trying their best to figure out how to help Ciel, to make her life a bit easier. It eventually came down to just letting Ciel deal with it, hoping that she could go to someone if she needed to help or support. Noctis, Prompto, Ignis and the Glaive have been careful to not bring up the older Amicitia, since they didn’t wish for the girl to go into a fit of some kind. She was a simmering mass of anger that had no real way to take out her frustration. And this was what lead to Noctis’ bright idea.

“...You got us fake ID’s because I’ve been crabby?” Ciel asked, standing in Noctis’ apartment one day after school with Prompto, who was looking at his ID with interest, amazed by the work.

Noctis shrugged his shoulders. “I thought it would be a good idea to relax and away for you to release whatever you build up,” he said, trying to think of a better way than he originally put it. “But we have to keep this between us, we can’t have Ignis or anyone finding us out or we’re dead.”

Simply agreeing to that one rule, Friday had came quickly and the three of them had gotten to a rather popular club in town, already three shots in within five minutes of just walking through the door. Of course, Noctis had to order them the strongest stuff they had on the shelf, and Prompto was already buzzed, Noctis was obviously getting there, and Ciel just felt a bit numb. The music was pumping loud in their ears as they stood around a table together, people dancing around him or just huddled together around their own tables having conversations. The three of them stood there, ordering their own drinks now, vowing that more shots would be done later.

Eventually, Ciel had lost Prompto and Noctis already, women had caught their attentions so they were going in together to try and pick them up. Ciel was alone at their table now, on her fourth drink, and she still wasn’t anywhere close to being as drunk as Prompto and Noctis right now. Her eyes was scanning the area, making sure that there was no threat that would put Noctis’ life in danger until her eyes landed on a body of muscles that was wrapped tightly around a slim form in front of him. Ciel’s eyes tears up, burning as she tore her eyes from the sight and forcing herself not to start crying. Of course, no matter where she does, Gladio is always there in her view, and it would seem that the Astral’s would like to be cruel and make her see this display before her. Why was this bothering her so much? Maybe it was because Gladio a rather important person in her life, and just easily getting thrown from his life like that, it really showed someone’s true character.

Ordering their strongest drink by the waiter that passed, Ciel finished the rest of her drink before the next arrived, and slammed that back in one go, surprising the waiter at the display of no gag reflex or anything. Handing the glass back and ordering another one, Ciel scanned the crowd again, finding Prompto and Noctis stumble their way towards the bathroom, hopefully they were going to throw up in there to sober up at bit before they came back and call it quits for tonight. Her eyes found Gladio again, and he was at the bar pretty much where the other two were sitting with those girls a few minutes ago. He was with the girl that he was practically fucking on the dancefloor. Her drink arrived and she was taking a sip from it, but paused when she felt eyes on her, glancing up, she saw dark amber eyes land upon her, clearly shocked at the sight. Gladio was beginning to leave the bar, making his way over towards her slowly. Ciel slammed back this drink as well, placing it on the table, along with as much bills as possible before making her way towards the dancefloor, planning to use the crowd to throw him off.

She weaved in and out of the crowd, letting men and women alike grind against her as she watched closely for Gladio’s tattoo among them. And it was pretty easy to spot to larger boy within the crowd, he is rather tall. He was surprisingly looking for her, and she kept slipping out of his sight every time he thought he finally found her. Eventually, Ciel found her way out of the crowd and lost Gladio within it. Easily enough, she found Prompto and Noctis as well. Grabbing the two boys, the three of them left the club and grabbed a thing of alcohol on the way back to Noctis’ apartment where the two of them finished it off, leading the three to pass out at last.

Though it didn’t feel like long, maybe five hours at most, Ciel awoke around four-thirty in the morning, the sun not even rising yet, or making any signs that it would be any time soon. The Astrals had to be on her side if they didn’t gift her with a hangover, but she couldn’t say about the other two that were both passed out in Noctis’ bed at the moment. Getting two small pitchers of water ready, she brought them in, placing them next to each body, along with a glass already filled with medicine next to the glasses for when they wake up. It probably wouldn’t be for a few more hours before they awoke, so Ciel was left to herself to busy herself with whatever she could find in the apartment.

Ciel returned to the couch, noticing that she as several voicemails and text messages, and they were all from one person. Debating if she wanted to just delete them all and not bother or if she should listen to them all and see why he even bothered to try and get ahold of her after so long. Deciding with the latter, she started with the five voicemails that were there first, not completely awake enough to read messages right now.

 

“ _Obviously it’s me, I just saw like five minutes ago, I’m positive it was you. Ciel, what the fuck are you doing in a club? Are you with Prompto? Is Noctis here as well? Are you alone? How in the fucking world did you get in even? How the fuck did you get fake ID’s is a better question? Please, just call me back._ ”

“ _Ciel, it’s been an hour, I need you to message me, I’m getting worried._ ”

“ _Where are you? I traced the IP and it seems like your phone is off or you disable the tracking on it. Please, can you call me if you get this… I can’t get ahold of Prompto and Noctis either, or their ignoring me like they’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks, fuck, Noctis almost ripped me a new one the day you woke up… Please, just call me._ ”

“ _...I just got a message from Prompto… You look like you are having a good time… and obviously rather drunk seeing as you three somehow managed to buy fucking expensive alcohol. Seriously, please call me when you get this. I’m worried…._ ”

“ _It’s four in the morning, I haven’t slept yet and don’t think I will. I just want to know that you’re okay. I fucking call Cor and he said you weren’t home, probably at Noctis’ or Prompto’s or even Nyx’s… You seemed to really grown closer to the Glaive, to Nyx… Am I really that easy to throw away? Ciel, I want to apologize to you, but you wouldn’t give me a time of day, you wouldn’t give me a chance, but I’m willing to wait… Just call please._ ”

 

Ciel kept her phone held at her ear after the last messaged played, her eyes zoning out upon the coffee table, seeing her reflection in the glass. How was she meant to react to this? There were so many emotions that were going through each message that she heard, and she was getting her conflicting emotions through each one until the end. Pulling her phone away from her ear, she saw two text messages from Gladio as well, before she opened them to read them.

 

{BLOCKED}

- _Honestly, I swear I saw you in the club. I don’t know if you just didn’t answer my call, but I know you still have that habit of checking messages without reading the notification to see who sent it, so, I am taking my luck with that. I just need to know if it was you, and if you are alone are not. I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I just want you to be responsible. You’re fifteen, Ciel, don’t go throwing your life away, you are training to be a Crownguard, are you ready to risk throwing that in the dirt and leave it behind? Please, all I’m asking is you to think your choices over._ -sent @12:30am  
- _It’s been three hours, I can’t get the photo out of my head that Prompto sent. There were so many things I wanted to say in the voicemail to you, but I didn’t want to risk anyone hearing me. I’m pretty sure that’s Noctis’ apartment, but then again, Prompto’s studio flat looks a bit alike as well. But my point is, are you seriously planning to have drunk sex and risk getting pregnant? Your mother will flip, you know that. Are you ready to raise a child when you’re barely a teenager? I hope you are more sober than those two… Please, just don’t make that mistake. Please._ -sent @3:00am

 

Ciel stared at the text messages, anger flaring up inside of her. What right does he have to even lecture her after all the bullshit he’s been putting her though!? What about him? He’s nineteen, he’s fucking women, getting drunk and he has his own duties to the Crown! He’s meant to be Noctis’ Shield! It seems like she’s doing his job for him, he’s fucking around. Almost ready to toss her phone across the room and into the wall, her phone started going off, making her drop it on the carpet below her. Reaching down, she read the contact name that flashed upon the screen, seeing that it wa Gladio once again. It wasn’t even five yet.

Picking up her phone, she decided to answer this time. Pulling the phone to her ear, she heard a sigh of relief fall from the speaker. “ _Finally, you pick up,_ ” the deep voice rumbled through the phone. “ _Ciel, we seriously need to talk-_ ”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she said, her voice thick with the anger and venom that she thrown at him. “If you are going to lecture me about drinking, and maybe having a little bit of fun with Prompto, then don’t fucking say a word, asshole,”

Gladio had fallen silent on the other line, obvious shocked at the tone she had taken upon him. “ _Ciel, you are being an idiot-_ ”

Ciel’s hand clenched around her phone to keep her voice controlled and to keep her from screaming into it at him, risking to awake the two hungover boys that were going to have a killer headache. “NO.” Ciel stated firmly. “I am not being an idiot, I am trying to be a normal teenager, trying to take my mind off of shit. If anyone should be lecturing anyone, it should be me at you.”

“ _And what gives you that idea? You are fifteen, Ciel. FIFTEEN._ ” Gladio stated, his voice getting deeper with the anger that was raising up inside of him now.

“Age is only a number, and you’re only nineteen,” she retorted, her hand beginning to shake to keep her from marching from this apartment to smash Gladio’s stupid head in. “You are Noctis’ Shield aren’t you? What have you been doing these last couple of weeks? Training? Fucking every women in Insomnia? Drinking? Partying?”

“ _Ciel, don’t you bring my life into this-_ ” Gladio tried to argue back, but Ciel once again cut him off.

“I will.” she stated, taking a deep breath through her nose. “I haven’t seen you around Noctis this entire time, I even heard that Cor has been training Noctis, that you’ve been ‘busy’, so what gives huh? Are you going to drag your family name through the dirt? I bet your father is really proud of you…”

“ _And what about your mother, Ciel? How long has this been going on? How long have you been clubbing, and jumping between Nyx and Prompto?_ ” Gladio questioned, firing shots, firing shots that brought out the rage. “ _Maybe you’re fucking them both.”_

“Fuck. You.” her voice cracked, tears coming to her eyes.  “At least I’m not a manwhore, disrespecting my Family. And at least I’m a fucking virgin and protecting Noctis rather than going around to be a complete asshole to everyone… I am a better Shield than you, at least I’m there for Noctis, and FYI; first time ever doing that, and Noctis was the one who decided that we do that, for my sake since you fucked me over.”

Gladio’s voice hitched, something he usually does in realization when he’s passed over a line. “ _Ciel… Fuck-_ ” he started saying, but Ciel had ended the call, tossing her phone to the other end of the couch, tears falling down her face. To think that she was actually going to try and forgive him after everything. He was still an asshole and he wasn’t going to change.

Ciel got to her feet, heading to the bathroom to take a shower before packing the important things before leaving a note for Ignis to let him know that the three of them did a stupid thing by underage drinking, and that the two were going to need to be taken care of for the day. She grabbed her phone and keys, leaving the apartment, and deciding that today was the day that she went to look for an apartment.

\---------------------------

Winter had fallen over Insomnia, and it was getting closer to Winter Break for all the school students. Gladio hadn’t tried contacting Ciel after that night, nor have the two seen each other. Clarus and Iris had attempted to invite Ciel over for supper, wishing to fix Gladio’s and her’s relationship, but she refused, distancing herself from them. Ciel now lived on her own, giving Cor and her mother the space they needed, but there were some nights that she would return to the comfort of her mother’s house, and cuddle up with her on the couch with a movie on. Her training was going well, actually, she was rather ahead in her training in both fields, only weakness, she still couldn’t summon weapons yet, but she felt close to cracking it.

It was lunch time, Ciel was huddled around Noctis’ desk with Prompto, the three of them sharing their lunches like usual. They were talking about classes and exams that were coming up soon, as well as some events that were happening around Insomnia. Like the Winter Carnival, that Prompto wanted to go on a triple date with them. Noctis was cool with the idea as Ciel was kind of the only one straight out refusing.

“Oh, come on, it would be fun, then maybe our dates would like to company with us to the Winter Ball at the Citadel on Christmas Eve,” Prompto brought up, pouting cutely at Ciel, seeing as she’s been off and on with her moods lately since the fight on the phone with Gladio, which of course the two boys had found out later that day when Ciel returned with paperwork for the apartment that she currently lives in. “You don’t want to be alone for that do you?”

Ciel rolled her eyes. Ever since Ignis had brought up the Winter Ball, Ciel was determined of not going, but her mother had finally slammed her foot down, saying that Ciel was going, or she was grounded and moving back to the house for a month. “I rather not be going at all, but no, I have to do since I’ve skipped out on everything else, I also have to go to Christmas at the Citadel,” she said, her mood just going rather sour at the thought of either events.

Noctis sighed, clearly having no other idea to convince Ciel to go. He even talked to Evelyka about excusing Ciel again since he didn’t want possible bloodshed either days. Of course, the mother didn’t agreed, saying that Gladio and Ciel needed to grow up. Yes, all three of them had gotten in shit for underage drinking, but it wasn’t serious since Ciel did the wise thing not drink barely anything. “If it makes you feel better, you could always end up in jail,” Noctis pointed out, giving her an escape opinion if she really needed it.

“And be grounded for the rest of my life, no thank you,” she said, shaking her head, pouting a bit. “I would ask one of you, but you both a determined on those two girls in the other class, so I’ll figure something out,” Taking a sip of her juice that Ignis had packed up for her in Noctis’ lunch since learning that she rather liked them when he first brought them over for Noctis to try. “I could always find a way to pull strings with Drautos and see if I can get Nyx to be my escort,”

“And have Gladio and you at each other’s neck for the entire evening? Clarus, Cor and Drautos would have to keep a murder from happening,” Noctis said, chuckling a little bit, knowing that would just tick Gladio off if she did show up with Nyx and the two of them get a bit touchy throughout the evening. “Speaking of Nyx, you’ve been spending a lot more time with him, is something going on between you two?

Prompto raised an eyebrow, turning a curious gaze to Ciel. “Something going on between you and the Hero?” he asked, finding this interesting news for him that he had yet to hear about.

Ciel sighed, shaking her head. “I wish,” she truthfully said to them, playing with her straw. “But there’s the whole minor thing, so, we just hang out, nothing more,”

“Shitty,” Prompto said, actually hoping that Ciel was actually going to have some way to get her out there and someone to trust in again. “Are you sure it’s not because you have trust issues?”

Ciel blushed a little bit, biting onto her lower lip. She had gone through a short period during the summer that Ciel had lost faith in anyone close to her when Gladio just threw her off like that, Noctis and Prompto managed to to gain it back quickly, the others took a bit longer. “A little bit since Nyx and I are rather close from childhood as well... “ She admitted, slumping back in her chair, a guilty look on her face. “Truth is, I really want life to be normal again… I feel weird not going to the Amicitia household like I use to, but Clarus and Iris are so determined to get Gladio and I to talk it out, and I seriously don’t want to hurt him…”

“You know Gladio feels like shit about what he said that night right? Dad had to order Gladio to take a break from anything after he ended up in the infirmary, even begged your mother not to tell you about that happening,” Noctis brought up, causing Ciel’s eyes to snap up towards Noctis, clearly confused, and showing that it was the first she heard of any of this. “I thought your mother or Cor would have told you…”

“No... “ Ciel said, guilt finally dropping in her gut. “...Do you think that I’ve been too harsh on him?”

“Maybe a little bit, you didn’t even let him explain why he did what he did, you know Gladio doesn’t do things without a solid reason behind it,” Prompto said, also relaxing back into his chair, snacking on a carrot. “I mean, I know I haven’t known Gladio as long as both of you, but I’ve known him enough to know that much,”

Ciel sighed, letting her head hang back and close her eyes. These last few months, she’s been just cold if anything was brought up about Gladio, but now… She was beginning to realize that she was being harsh on him without really a reason to. Sure, she did get a reason after her pretty much called her a whore that one morning, but she was the one who hung up when he tried to apologize. Ciel needed to grow up and talk to him, and apologize for her behavior. But, she didn’t know how. “How am I even going to talk to him? He probably hates my guts,” Ciel said, opening her eyes to stare at the ceiling above them.

“I doubt that, he’s always asking about you at training,” Noctis said, finishing up his burrito that her mother made for Noctis. “I think he doesn’t want to pass boundaries again after what happened, he’s just giving you the space you need.”

“Hearing that makes me feel a little better,” she said, sitting up properly to start packing her portion of the lunch that was out on the desk. “Maybe I’ll drop you off at the Citadel today and go to the training room to say hi..”

Noctis chuckled, smiling warmly at Ciel. “I think he might like that.” he said, seeing her cheeks light up at the thought. He wanted to make a comment about it, but he didn’t, beginning to clean up with her. Noctis wanted to tease her about her possible crush on the Amicitia, but he didn’t want to cross any lines with her either, she’ll be saved from his teasing for a bit longer.

The school day had passed by quickly, getting study packages from each class for exams that were coming up soon. Noctis and Ciel departed from Prompto at his street as the two continued on to the Citadel, chatting away about how they needed to plan with Prompto about setting up study sessions that would work for Ignis. Soon enough, they also started talking about King's Knight that was was currently in production, and was going to be releasing soon, though their conversation topic soon changed to what Noctis had been doing for his Princely duties.

“Oh god, I knew that guy was weird since we were young, but, agh… That’s just gross,” Ciel pointed out, hearing about a company’s CEO gross habit that either were sure about for years now. “I apologize for not being there,”

Noctis laughed, shaking his head. “It’s all good, Prompto made sure that was the final time I had to talk to him,” he said, opening the door to the training room, getting hit with the smell of sweat. “Hey, Gladio,”

Both teenagers walked into the room, getting the attention of the Shield, whose eyes had locked onto the the extra body in the room, and was surprised to see her after so long. Ciel sheepishly waved to Gladio, the Shield looked away from her, completely ignoring her, looking to Noctis. “You get changed,” he said, his voice dropping to give the order.

Noctis nodded his head, waving to Ciel, not expecting her to be there for much longer. Once Noctis was gone, the two of them were alone, neither spoke. Gladio was looking anywhere but her, but Ciel was watching him, and it was obvious that she done some serious harm. “Gladio… I’m here to talk,” she said, her voice low, not wanting to tip him off.

“I’m currently busy at the moment, and I will be before awhile,” he said, going back to the training sword, and started swinging it again, giving him something to do, something that didn’t involved looking at her. Ouch. “Anyways, you should probably go, I don’t need Noctis getting distracted.”

Ciel nodded her head, looking at her feet a little defeated. “Well, when you get the chance, I’m willing to listen,” she said, turning around, heading to the door, pausing with her hand on the handle. “And I wanted to apologize… about that morning on the phone, I had no right to say those things, and I should have let you talk to me that day in September, but I was still so upset at the time… I’ll be waiting for your call or text…”

Still no reply from Gladio, Ciel left the room, softly closing the door behind her, giving Gladio the space he needed now. Taking a deep breath, the world around her felt just a little bit easier. Walking down the hall, she started her way to the front of the Citadel, unknown to her that Ignis had been down the other way, smiling softly seeing a difference in Ciel when she left the area. Things might be finally starting to find their places together again.

\------------------------

Exams were getting closer, and Ciel was finding it harder to focus due to the fact that Gladio hadn’t bothered sending her any kind of messages or call her since that day. She was panicking pretty much every couple of hours. At her current time, she was at Noctis’ apartment with Ignis as the Prince and Prompto were out of their dates with those girls that they wanted to take to the Winter Ball, but also the Winter Festival that was coming up. Ciel was finishing up a paper that she needed for English class, but she kept glancing at her phone every time a notification would pop up, but it was usually from a game, or a message from any else but never Gladio.

“You are getting yourself worked up,” Ignis voiced from the kitchen, causing Ciel to jump a little bit from the couch to look over her shoulder to the adviser. “He will get ahold of you when he’s finished freaking out,”

Ciel raised an eyebrow, wondering why Gladio would be freaking out. “Explain,” she said, turning around on the couch to get a better look at Ignis, as well as to not make her neck sore.

Ignis paused with what he was doing, and leaning against the counter to think about how he should put this into words. “He’s been acting differently after the day you showed up in the training room with Noctis, I think he’s not sure how to go about this,” he said, looking to Ciel who was listening to him closely. “Give him some time, he will get in contact with you, just you wait,”

Ciel sighed, falling back onto the couch. It’s been a few weeks now, and it was driving her crazy. Letting out a frustrated groan, she rolled off the couch and onto the floor with a thump. Now that she was on her stomach, she just started at the window that lead to the balcony. Noctis and Prompto wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours, and she was pretty much done her paper, all she really had to do was send it to Ignis to look over and make notes of what she needed to fix.

Reaching up for her phone, she pulled it down with her, Ciel started looking in her contacts, pulling up Gladio’s number, praying that she would be able to leave a message or get to talk to him for a little bit. Pulling the phone to her ear, she started listening in, waiting for some form of answer. She laid there waiting, until finally there was an answer.

“ _Hello?_ ” Gladio answered, the sound of water running in the background.

Ciel breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey, Gladio…” she said, her voice a little weak with using his nickname, since it’s been so long since they talked. “Or Gladiolus…”

Ciel was greeted by silence for a moment, but there was a quick all out to someone about taking a call before Gladio came back to her. “ _Sorry, had to tell Noctis and Prompto and our dates that I had to take a call,_ ” he said, and Ciel’s stomach dropped.

“O-Oh… You’re on a date with the guys…” She said, her voice only becoming weaker then how she started off. “I thought you would be training or eating… I didn’t know, I’ll just let you go, u-um, have fun,”

“ _Hey, Ciel-_ ” Gladio tried to stop her, but once again, Ciel hung up, placing her phone back on the table.

She sat up, beginning to pack her back, even throwing her phone in at the end. Ignis seemed to have stopped whatever he was doing when he saw that Ciel was doing. “Aren’t you going to stay? I am making dinner for all of us when the boys and their dates get back,” he said, seeing her sling her back over her shoulder.

Ciel looked over to Ignis, shaking her head. “I think I’m just going to head over to mum’s, kind of miss her cooking,” she said, pulling up her hood and heading to the door and slipping on her shoes. “Um, put my portion off to the side and send it with Noctis tomorrow,”

Ignis nodded his head, she waved to him before leaving. She took her time leaving, heading to her mother’s house. Her phone was going off in her bag, but she ignored it, not worrying about it, she would check it later if she must. She stuck her hands into the pockets of her hoodie as she headed down the street, watching the people walk by her as she made her way to her mother’s. She could have easily taken the bus, but her mother’s place wasn’t too far from Noctis’ apartment, and she was pretty sure the Prince had did that on purpose, but she didn’t bug him about it.

She was thinking that Gladio would be waiting for her to call him, to confirm that she was being serious about him explaining to her everything, but hearing about the date, Ciel really felt out of it now. She really was thrown out into the cold by Gladio.

Receiving the house key from her pocket, she unlocked the door, noticing that nobody was home yet. It was still rather early, so Cor and her mother wouldn’t be home for awhile or just not at all. Taking off her shoes, she headed up stairs to drop her stuff off, laying out her study packages and school stuff on her desk to attack later when she had a chance. With her phone laying out on her bed, she saw that she had gotten voicemail from Gladio and maybe three text messages this time. Once again, she started off with the voicemail.

 

“ _Damn, you have a habit for hanging up now or something? Anyways, are you okay? You sound like you were sick or something… Noctis said that you’re at the apartment with Iggy, studying for exams. Truth be told, I totally gapped on calling you about the whole explanation before you called. I honestly thought you were still mad at me, but hearing you today… You sounded guilty… Really guilty. Even in the training room that day you showed how you were feeling… I should have canceled with Noctis and talked to you, but I was scared… I know right? Me? Scared? Ha… Maybe we can talk at Noctis’? I’m dropping my date off before we head over since she has a mock exam tomorrow morning. So, see you soon?_ ”

 

Ciel smiled briefly, happy just hearing him again. Though she wanted to reply the message again, she deleted it, highly due to the fact that he mentioned his date. God, he was dating someone in college? Good for him honestly, but does that mean she lost her place by his side? Would everyone be removing her from her place for this girl to take it? Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. Ciel couldn’t be thinking like that. Noctis and Prompto wouldn’t let that happen. Either would Ignis. She shouldn’t be doubting her friends, but she couldn’t shake away the feeling that she lost her spot next to Gladio due to his date.  

Flipping from voicemail to messages, she saw that she did get only three from Gladio, but she also go one from Noctis as well. Deciding that she wanted to deal with Gladio first, that’s what she did. Clicking on the tab, she was taken into the conversation.

 

{Behemoth}  
- _Hey, where are you? I thought you were at the apartment?_ -sent @5:15pm  
- _Iggy said that you left to your mother’s, is everything okay? I know you weren’t answering your phone earlier, but I thought that was because you were busy._ -sent @5:25pm  
- _Ciel, I’m heading over right now._ -sent @5:29pm

 

Ciel’s eyes widened at the last message, looking to the small clock in the top right side corner of the screen. It read five-thirty five, that last message was sent six minutes ago, knowing Gladio, it wouldn’t take him long, and that would be he should be arriving around now. Getting up to her feet, Ciel started her way downstairs, wanting to have some water before he arrived, her mouth had suddenly became dry at that last text message he sent. Deciding she would read Noctis’ while she wanted, she opened that tab up next.

 

{Princess}  
- _Hey, Gladio said you called him earlier and then left here saying that he was heading over to your mother’s after Specs told us where you disappeared to. Is everything okay? Do you want me to stop Gladio? Message me as soon as you get this._ -sent @5:31pm  
{Pupu}  
- _Yeah, I did, I didn’t know he was going to be with you… I didn’t know he had a date. Um, don’t worry, I think I’ll be okay, if something comes up, I’ll be able to handle it. I’m going to call mom real quick to let her know what’s going on so that she doesn’t just walk right in._ -delivered @5:41pm

 

Noting the time of sending that message Noctis, she glanced out the front window real quick, wondering where Gladio was, she saw that he wasn’t there yet. Shrugging her shoulders, she grabbed a glass to fill with water, dialing her mother’s number to call her. And with no surprised, she answered before the first ring could finish.

“ _Hun! What’s wrong?_ ” Her mother replied in a panicked tone, obviously not expecting Ciel to call her. “ _Do you need Cor to come grab you? Where are you?_ ”

“Mom, calm down, I’m at your house,” Ciel said, laughing softly, wondering what could have possibly been going through her mother’s head at the very moment. “I was calling to let you know so I didn’t get Cor’s sword in my face again, as well to let you know something else.”

A sigh was heard, clearly calming down now hearing that her daughter was alright, just at home waiting for them. “ _What’s up?_ ” she asked, curious now as to the other thing that she needed to be told about.

“Do you think you and Cor can wait until I message you? Gladio is apparently coming over to talk…” She said, taking a sip of her water she had gotten.

“ _Oh? You are finally going to talk to Gladio?_ ” Her mother asked, interested hearing that her daughter was making an attempt to talk to the Amicitia again after several months.

Ciel laughed softly, just a happy feeling filling her chest at the thought of getting alone time with Gladio. “Yeah… It feels kind of good,” she said, taking another sip of her water, glancing out to the window to see if Gladio arrived yet. “Mom, I really hope-”

“ _Just hold on a second, Ciel,_ ” Evelyka said, her voice sounding like it was something important. Ciel shutted her mouth, not saying anything. She heard low voices, and then things to have fallen silent. Even if she was on the other end of the photo, far from where her mother currently was, but Ciel could feel the air get tense around her too with whatever her mother was just told.

“Mom? What’s wrong?” Ciel asked, her voice going weak, her bones had gotten a rather painful chill within them. Something was seriously wrong, the back of her mind was tugging at her. “Mom?”

“Ciel… When did Gladio say he was heading over?” Evelyka asked, her voice gentle, but Ciel was able to pick up the careful undertone of her words as well. “Ciel? Can you answer me, this is important…”

Ciel’s breath caught in her throat, the glass slipped through her fingers as she raced from the kitchen, the glass shattering behind her as she was slipping on her flats and racing outside, not locking the door behind her, phone held tightly to her ear. “Mom, it was more than ten minutes ago…” she said, her feet taking her towards Noctis’ apartment.

“Ciel, listen to me, calm down, everything is going to be alright,” her mother wasn’t going to try sugar coating it, she should had been just honest in the first place, Ciel was fifteen, she wasn’t stupid. “Please, don’t freak out, he’ll worry,”

Ciel wasn’t listening, and she kept running. Her mind was determined to find something, something to prove what she was thinking was wrong. She didn’t even get to the first block when she found the accident, along with Gladio’s hoodie thrown off to the side, a part of it heavily stained with blood. There was still crews on the scene, and then there was the stretcher with a larger body upon it. “O-Oh Six…” Ciel whispered into her phone, rushing over toward the ambulance. “GLADIO!”

The medics heard her voice, pausing to turn around to see the tears in her eyes as she rushed onto the scene. Ciel’s phone was long forgotten in her hand as she saw Gladio, heavily covered in his own blood and clearly not awake by how he didn’t respond to her voice. The medics didn’t stop her from getting into the ambulance with him since it was obvious that she knew him. Ciel had hung up her conversation with her mother, knowing that when she had screamed out Gladio’s name, that was all she needed to confirm that Ciel had found what Evelyka was trying to calm her down for.

The ride over to the hospital was a silent one, they were wiping away more of the blood to see the extend of the injures. It seemed though that most of them were internal rather than external, but they couldn’t tell the extent due to all the muscles on Gladio’s body. Ciel’s hand had taken a hold of Gladio’s, and she wouldn’t have let go, if security hadn’t had to pull her away from him before he was brought into the operation room. She could only stare at the door, not liking that her hand was becoming cold without his hand there.

She was left alone. Standing in painfully white hallways, and no clue of what the outcome was going to be of this. All Ciel wanted was Gladio to hug her and tell him that it was all a bad dream and nothing had happened these past few months. She just wanted something good. She wanted a lie.

The cold truth only made her want to call out to him more.


	5. Chapter Five - Blood-Sweat-Tears

It felt like days had past since she arrived at the hospital. She was now sitting in one of the chairs outside of the operation room, still waiting for them to move Gladio to a room. Clarus had given consent for Ciel to know the police report and of Gladio’s condition since Clarus was currently outside of Insomnia at the given time and there was nobody else that could really go, other than the King, but that was even impossible seeing as there had been endless meetings and reports the King had to attend to.

The report that was given at least had a place to put blame so Ciel didn’t have to take it all upon herself for this accident that had happened. Gladio just ended up at a bad place at a wrong time mainly. But due to road maintenance getting a bit sloppy with their work, especially the crew for that section, ice had formed on the road, and a truck, trying to avoid a pet rushing across, hit the ice and that was that. It was a really lucky that nobody else was hit. Yes, the dog had passed away, the child was completely heart broken, yet it seemed like Noctis was going to be taking care of that. As for Gladio… He still hadn’t left the operation room for-five hours now? She didn’t even know when she got in here, but she’s been here for awhile.

Nobody had arrived, Ciel had to reassure Iris that her brother was going to be fine and that she needed to pray to the Astral’s and have fate in the doctor’s, promising that she would call later when Gladio was out of surgery and into his own room. Noctis and Prompto had called her up after they got their dates home safely, they had decided to walk them home, not wanting to risk any more casualties, and luckily the girls’ parents understood the situation for them being late. They asked if she needed anything or if they needed to be there with her during this. She turned them down, saying that she was going to be okay, and that they needed to study, she would message them later about Gladio’s condition once she’s told Iris. Her mother and Cor both messaged her, asking how Gladio was and Ciel would give them one message answers, she didn’t have much information to go on at the moment. She had left a voice message for Clarus, knowing that he was focusing on driving, and Ciel hoped that he was at taking short rest along the way, not wishing for him to get in any accidents either. Ciel also didn’t want him driving around there at night either, so he better be sleeping some place safe.

Ciel leaned her head against the wall before her chair, closing her eyes to get herself to relax. She was so tense right now. Nobody has bothered to come out of the operation room to give her any kind of update, and it was just freaking her out even more. Was the internal damage that bad? Probably, considering they were still in there at the moment. A nurse had came by earlier to return Gladio’s sweater that the medics at taken off of him. It was still in pretty good condition, and at least the nurse was kind enough to clean it. Ciel was wrapped up in it, just kind of cocooning herself into the giant piece of clothing, the hood pulled up over her head.

“Excuse me, miss,”

Ciel peeked from under the hood, seeing a nurse before her, blood covering clothing. She sat up properly, pushing the hood back to look at the nurse, ready to listen to whatever she had to say. “Is he okay? Is he going to be awake soon? Is there anything I have to do? Do I need to give an organ donation?” Ciel was sprouting out questions, earning a warm smile from the nurse, making her pause in the questions that all formed within the front of her mind.

“Gladiolus Amicitia is going to be perfectly fine, those muscles aren’t just for show,” the nurse said, laughing softly. “We’re going to be moving him into intensive care until he wakes up. The doctor wishes to make sure that the surgery had gone well and that they didn’t miss anything.” Holding out her hand to Ciel, she gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m here to bring you to the room that he is going to be staying in. The doctor it just going to run a scan and maybe some more bone marrow to be sure that nothing is wrong.”

Ciel nodded her head, getting up and taking the nurse's hand. Not even realizing it, she was rather shaky on her feet, but the nurse seemed to have a pretty good guess that was going to be the case when she offered her hand. The walls around them were just too bright, she missed the black hallways of the Citadel, it was easier to walk through those halls then one of the hospital. They were so bright, it actually kind of hurted her eyes the longer she was out here. She had made a quick stop at the cafeteria to grab something to eat, just a few slices of pizza, a rather large thing of pop and maybe a few bags of chips from the venting machine. She was going to need to ask Ignis to bring some snacks and meals tomorrow for her, and ask her mom to drop off her homework. Ciel was going to need to ask Noctis and Prompto for notes and homework for tomorrow as well.

When they arrived to the room, Gladio was already placed inside and the room’s lights were dimmed, so the room wouldn’t be completely black. They had a table there for either of them, and one of those bed, chair things for her with a blanket and a pillow. Setting her food onto the table, Ciel got herself comfortable in the chair as the nurse went about checking everything to be sure that everything okay and perfect before she left, closing the door behind her. Ciel pulled out her phone, messaging everyone that matter to Gladio that he was okay, as yet to wake, so they were keeping him in care until he does. She even did all the asking that she needed to do before she forgot, and even told Clarus not to worry about Gladio, she would take care of him.

Getting a chance to place her phone on the table before she looked to Gladio’s bed. She stood up, bringing the chair over to Gladio’s side, easily getting it comfortable for her to sleep in. She climbed back into the chair, reaching over and taking a hold of Gladio’s hand, feeling the warmth in it. Ciel felt her eyes burn at the tears that welled up suddenly at the simple touch. He was okay. He was going to be okay.

Finally, just letting the tears fall, as her hold on his hand tightened. She started sobbing as she resting her head against his chest in an uncomfortable position to listen to his heart beat. If she didn’t get so angry with him in the first place, this wouldn’t had happened, Gladio would be okay. They would be okay. At least Ciel hoped that they would be okay once again.

No… Everything would had been okay. She knew that.

 

\-----------------------------

 

Her eyes were sore, her back was stiff, and her throat was dry. Cracking her eyes open, she winced at the light that was shining in. Ciel got to her feet, stumbling over the chair, making it over to the window to close the blinds for her sake. Once everything seemed to have darkened in the room once again, enough light for her to see what she was doing and where she was going. Ciel went to the table, picking up a cold piece of pizza and eating into it as she took her phone and saw that it was close to ten-thirty in the morning, she had some messages, so she started to read through them. Thank god for the group chat she decided to create last night to keep this all together.

 

{Pupu}  
- _Hey, everyone. I made a group chat because I’m too tired to be changing between tabs and it’s just easier in the long run since this will mainly be about Gladio. Anyways, Gladio is out of surgery, he’s okay. Not awake though. They’re keeping him in care until he wakes up, just to be sure. A lot of his injures are internal, but I don’t know the extent of it. Iris, you can stop by after school tomorrow with Jared or your father, I’ll be here, I plan on not doing anything for awhile. Clarus, please take your time getting back to Insomnia, it wouldn’t be good if something happened to you as well, I got your son. Noctis, Prompto; can you both please get me all the notes and booklets I’ll be needed for the rest of the week and give them to Ignis? Mom, can you get my school bag together and take it with you to the Citadel and give it to Ignis so he can put my other stuff in it when he gets it. Ignis, huge favor, can you bring it to me along with the left overs from last night? I’ll message you all in the morning_ -sent[last night]  
{chocobo}  
- _Yeah, me and Noct can do that for you! Just get some sleep! Also eat food! Call us tomorrow if you can, since we can’t go to the hospital, we will be glad to comfort you through the phone if you need to._ -sent  
{Princess}  
- _What Prompt said. We’re here for you, also, Iris, if you need anything, you can call me or Prompt up and we’ll bring Iggy over to keep you company when Gladio and your dad are gone._ -sent  
{moogle}  
- _Oh, I’m glad that Gladdy is alive at least. Thank you so much for being there for him Ciel… I know you both haven’t been on good terms lately but I’m happy that hasn’t caused anything to change between you two. I might do that after school, if Ignis doesn’t mind picking me up before he gets Noctis and Prompto and I’ll just come with him when he drops your things off._ -sent  
{Clarus}  
- _I am alright, I made it to Galdin last night thankfully. I should be back by the afternoon. I would stop in, but I’m rather busy right now. It would be very grateful thing if you did make sure that Iris had someone with her other than Jared, Young Prince. Ciel, please keep me updated on my son_ -sent  
{Mums}  
- _Good to hear, I’ve got it all ready for you. If you have some time, call me._ -sent  
- _Oh, Cor says you can call him too if you need him._ -sent  
{Specs}  
- _Yes, I can do all of that. I’ll be there at the hospital with you for a bit, but Iris, we cannot stay long, I will need to make dinner for all of us before I return you to the manor if that is the case. I’ll make some extra to bring for you tomorrow as well._ -sent

 

Okay, everyone seemed to have messaged at different times, but they all got the message, and that was what matter. Maybe it was time for another update about this morning? Yeah, that would only be fair. After all, it would probably ease them.

 

{Pupu}  
- _Morning <3 I just awoke, Gladio doesn’t seem to be awake yet either, so I’m taking that as a sign of him healing. I’ll keep you all updated on this as much as possible. _-sent

 

Seeing her phone back onto the table, dealing with the little bit of garbage that she created. She checked herself out inside in the room bathroom real quick. Her eyes were still red and swollen from crying herself to sleep. Her hair was a mess of tangled, brown locks. In short, Ciel looked like hell. Trying to smooth her hair out, she just decided to pull it up into a bun and return to her chair.

Ciel curled up, her knees brought up to her chest as she held her phone in her hands and started to play a game to keep her busy. She would often glance to see if Gladio had woken up, but nothing yet. The nurses had came in around noon, checking on his vitals, seeing if they could get any reactions… They were lucky that there was eye movement when someone had poked his feet. The doctor was going to be stopping by that afternoon, hopefully around when Iris arrived, so that it would put the younger Amicitia sibling at ease.

Once along again, Ciel was lost in thought on her own. She was doing some reading on King's Knight, seeing that it was going to be released some time at the start of the new year, and that was something to look forward to at least. Eventually, Ciel just rests her phone somewhere on the chair, resting her head against the bed like how she should have last night, but never did. She was playing with Gladio’s hand, watching his face twitch here and there, it was kind of cute.

“I wonder if you can hear me…” She said, watching his face from where she rested her head, keeping a close eye on him. “You know, when you do wake up, I’m going to be calling you an idiot, telling you how stupid you were for just rushing out like that… But I’m going to be crying as well. I should have just listened to you when said you wanted to explain yourself… I was so pissed off, hurt… So many reasons as to why I didn’t want to see you or speak to you. Then when I do, I almost get you killed… We don’t have to talk, not until you’re fully healed, but can we go back to being like we were? I want to help you while you heal… I just want you back in my life.”

“And the love confession comes out,”

Ciel jumped in her chair, getting to her feet, hands up, ready for whatever attack that was going to be thrown at her, though she relaxed a lot when she noticed that it was only Nyx there, with her things. Hands dropping to her side, she gave a confused look. “Ignis was meant to drop that off,” she said, going over to take her bag from him.

“He’s going to come by later with the others,” he said, coming more into the room and closing the door behind him. “Man, why is it so dark in here?”

Ciel walked over to the table again, putting her bag under it, and turned to Nyx. “My eyes were hurting this morning, and I haven’t have a chance to open the blinds again. Too… I don’t know.” she admitted, going back to her chair and taking a seat in it and holding Gladio’s hand. “I feel like shit over this,”

Nyx stood next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder, letting her head flop against his hip. “It wasn’t your fault, he probably was just so happy that you wanted to listen to him that he kind of got dense in the head, also, it wasn’t your fault to begin with,” he reminded her, rubbing her shoulder in a comforting manner as she closed her eyes to relax. “I mean, he’s stubborn as all hell, you know this. He’s not going to die with so many other things that he needs to do.”

“Yeah, I got things I gotta tell him,” she said, though that caused her to pause, wondering where that thought even came from, but it caused her stomach to flutter. “God, I think your comment about my love confession is making me sick,”

“Why?” Nyx asked, looking down at her, concerned about it. “Never bothered you before.”

“Um, I don’t know...  I just feel… My stomach feels like it’s nervous,” Ciel said, wondering why she would be nervous. Especially now of all times. Oh, probably just because she was worried about Gladio and his reaction and all the possible bad things that could happen. “Maybe I’m just overly worried right now.”

Nyx shrugged, surprised to see this kind of reaction from her, yet never pressed about it, knowing that it was probably wise to not be stressing Ciel out right at the moment. He looked to Gladio, the Amicitia looked rather pale, but it didn’t look like he was hurt… just sick. “Clarus said a lot of the injuries were internal… Have you seen under the sheets?”

Ciel shook her head. She never really thought of looking under the sheets to see the damaged, but soon enough, warmth just flooded her cheeks. The mental image that came to be was one that was permanently going to be there. She knew what his torso looked like, Gladio hated shirts, he wouldn’t wear none if he doesn’t have to, and that is exactly what he does. And, she didn’t know if he wasn’t wearing anything below either, so she really didn’t think it would be wise to just pull back a sheet to see everything… Nyx wouldn’t let her live it down either if she got all flustered or made any sort of comment about it.

“W-Why would I do that?” she asked, looking away from Nyx, and focusing on that interesting spot on the floor that was away from everyone. “That is c-completely indecent… and it’s n-not my job to check him over.”

Nyx had fallen silent, nobody said anything until Ciel looked up, still red in the face to see Nyx was biting his lip to keep back the laugh that was fighting to leave his lips. “Oh my god, did I just witness the shorty get her first dirty thought?” he asked, a shit eating grin upon his face.

“SH-SHUT UP.” She said, her voice firm, loud, and showing her utter embarrassment of such a thought crossing her mind like it had.

“Do you not know of voice control?”

Ciel whipped her head towards Gladio, glaring at him for his question. “Oh, and you don’t get loud trying to deny something?” she questioned, looking back to Nyx, before her eyes went back to Gladio, seeing the Amicitia awake, and he was looking at Ciel, a smile on his face. “GLADIO.”

Ciel threw herself upon Gladio, holding onto him as she started sobbing her eyes out against his chest. Nyx stood there, smiling at them. He was happy to see that some things never changed, even if things weren’t doing too well before, but maybe this was going to be the way that they were going to fix this. “Good to see you alive, but I got things I need to do,” Nyx said, beginning to his departure.  “Text if you need anything,”

Nyx left the two be, deciding that he would tell a nurse on his way out that Gladio was awake, since it was probably going to be awhile before Ciel had even a chance to call for the nurse, but he was going to be kind also tell the nurse to give them some time as well, just so Ciel can get everything out of her system for the last few hours.

Gladio stiffly lifted his arms, wrapping them around the small shaking form on top of him, holding the sobbing body close to him. He felt bad for putting her through this. She wanted to talk, he had rushed out without even thinking. He also wasn’t paying attention. He probably could have avoided being in the hospital at the moment and Ciel wouldn’t be here, blaming herself. Smoothing out her hair as he did, he used his free arm to wrap around her waist to pull her closer to him.

Ciel started flailing about when Gladio started to pull her more onto the bed and himself. “Gladio, no! You’re hurt, a lot of your injuries are internal! You could die!” she started panicking, not sure what to even do right now. What if she already caused to pull something apart from within Gladio? What if he’s dying right? Her entire body freeze and she went limp. What was the correct course of action right now?

Gladio got Ciel comfortable against his side, brushing back some of her hair, and took notice of his hoodie that she was currently wearing. “I see that you took over my hoodie,” he commented, his voice soft, exactly how he had talked to her months ago, and it felt like years. “I’m glad to see that they cleaned it, and it’s not too damaged, I promised dad that I would ruin anymore Crownguard hoodies after I just got them… Considering I keep ruining them.”

Ciel was silent, just looked up at Gladio. She wasn’t sure what she should even say. They hadn’t talked in months, he’s been ignoring her, and of course, there was the incident that lead to Ciel just not being around Gladio or anything involving him. Now, here he was, in the hospital because she wanted to fix things, and he’s talking like they weren’t in a huge fight. “...Did you lose your memories?” she asked, looking him straight in the eyes, wanting to know if he forgot the last few months.

Gladio’s soft smile fell from his lips at the question. Did she really think that he had lost his memories? Or at least the last little bit. Or maybe a few years? “No, why?” he asked, wondering where that thought even came from.

“Gladio, you haven’t talked to me in months, you were ignoring me two months prior… Now you’re acting like none of it happened…” she said, her eyes looking away from him, looking so lost and confused right now. “Anyways, right now, all you need to worry about it is healing… Okay?”

Gladio looked at her, but he nodded, understanding. The two of them just laid there, not saying anything else. Not that they didn’t know what to say, but they didn’t want to say anything. It was probably better that way as well. Because no matter what, all they wanted to talk about was what happened, but that had to wait. Ciel needed it to. She wasn’t ready for it. At least not right now. And she probably wouldn’t be for awhile. Not until she was sure that Gladio was going to be fine after all of this.

Nobody knew when they had dozed off, but the others had arrived, along with Clarus, Evelyka, Cor and Regis, to see the two of them curled up on the bed together, Ciel was mainly on Gladio’s left side, her head resting against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Gladio’s arms were tightly wrapped around her body, making sure that she wouldn’t be going anywhere. The doctor told them that Gladio was doing fine, but was going to wake him to do actual physical check up until he woken up on his own once again seeing as this was the bodies natural way of healing. Everyone didn’t stay around for long, but they were glad that things were slowly coming back to normal again.

 

\----------------------------------------

 

Things finally got back into proper order. Ciel was training with Gladio once again, but that was only because she was helping him with recovery. Her lessons with Crowe had been cutting back as well, since there wasn’t much else to teach Ciel and it was okay to do so. She still didn’t hang out with Gladio much outside of training, but if Clarus or Iris asked her to be over for dinner, she would come. Noctis was enjoying that the tension between the two began to cut down greatly, but it was still there. Prompto didn’t bring it up, and told Ignis and Noctis that it would be wise that they didn’t mention it to either party since it could possibly lead to another fight. They needed to do this in their own time.

Christmas and New Year hadn’t been bad at all thankfully. Six, they even got each other little gifts. It wasn’t too bad. New Year’s Eve was probably even better, for the most part. Ciel had left pretty much right at midnight, and nobody knew why. Nobody bothered to question her about it either, for a while anyways, until Noctis finally brought it up at school, since it finally was getting to the point that Noctis needed some form of answer.

“Okay, what the hell happened New Year's Eve?” he asked, as soon as Ciel sat down at her desk for lunch with food that her mother brought over. “You just left. You said you were staying and you left.”

Ciel just looked at Noctis with half of her sandwich in her mouth, wondering what brought this up. In February, and Valentine's day just around the corner. “Um, I was tired,” she said, trying to come up with some sort of excuse a month later.

“Okay, you knew that the spare room was free, and you called it that night,” Prompto pointed out, ganging up on her with Noctis. “You just left, and went phone and nobody heard from you for like three days. So, what’s up?”

Ciel was panicking now, she didn’t want to think about that night, but she also didn’t want to think about the text messages that were still on her phone from than… Or the fact that she was actively trying to get out of training with Gladio. “...Um... I might have gotten jealous.” she softly said, looking down at her food sheepishly. “I mean, I don’t know… I just felt sick.”

Noctis and Prompto shared a look before bringing their desk to Ciel’s and looking at her, rather curious about what could possibly be getting Ciel all worked up like that. “Someone got you jealous? And it made you sick?” Noctis asked, kind of excited now, this was interesting development. “So, you saw your crush kissing someone?”

“Oh, it must be Gladio! You got jealous about him kissing another girl,” Prompto joked, lightly patting Ciel’s shoulder, only for the girl to turn a bright shade of pink, causing the blonde to stop and leaned forward right away. “No way, you got jealous over Gladio kissing some girl?”

Ciel shrugged her shoulder, looking down at the desk now, not sure about anything at the moment. Both of her friends were just staring at her, rather shocked about this development within their friend. “I mean… I don’t know… Like I saw them, and then they kissed, and I just felt so sad… hurt really,” she said, biting her lower lip, she never really had crushes growing up, she was so focus on her studies and her duties to the crown that she never really dwelled on feelings before, or at least until now.

Noctis wrapped an arm around Ciel shoulders, bringing his friend to him, and hugging her. He didn’t like seeing her like this. It was hard still on Ciel with everything else, and getting her schedule back into place from after Gladio’s previous stunt, now this? “Maybe you should come to the Citadel today, talk to your mother? I can always text dad to let your mother have an hour or two together at least, it seems like this is a serious parent issue,” he said, pulling out his phone, being ready to text his father at the word from Ciel.

She looked to Noctis’ phone, thinking about it. That has been an offer on the table for years now between them. If Ciel seriously needed her mother for anything, Noctis was always ready to get ahold of his father or even Clarus to get some time for Evelyka to be with Ciel when she really needed it, and right now, she wasn’t sure if this was even important. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Yeah, can you? I need my mother…” Ciel admitted, surprisingly less stressed out then she had been earlier.

Noctis pulled his arm back, getting to work on his text to his father, letting Prompto and Ciel be together. Prompto pulled his chair to the other side of Ciel, taking ahold of her hand, and smiling warmly at her, wanting to feel a bit better. “I want you to know, if you think you’re getting your feelings mixed up with Gladio, and you’re just upset with him from before, we wouldn’t hate you, your mother wouldn’t hate you, but I want you to rely on Noct and I if it is a crush that you have,” he said, trying to give the best support that he can for her when she’s gone through enough already.

Ciel was grateful for Noctis and Prompto, if it wasn’t for them in her life, she would probably still be getting the shit beaten out of her or something along the lines like that. Honestly, she was glad that she didn’t have a lot of friends, she only really needed a handful, and she got them. They were always around, and she could trust them with all she had.

 

\-----------------------------------------

 

The rest of the school day had passed by quickly. Noctis managed to get ahold of his father, and Ciel’s mother was waiting outside the school for her daughter by the end of the day. Ciel had rushed into her mother’s arms, holding her tightly. Evelyka knew by the hug alone that it was something serious. Maybe it was the beginning of Ciel becoming a woman and needing her mother’s help at last.

The two jumped into the Crownguard issue car, Ciel noticed right away that it was Cor’s, seeing as her mother seemed to barely bring her’s home anymore now that her relationship with Cor has been doing so well for the last while now. The ride was silent in the beginning for the most part, until Evelyka finally decided to start up the conversation. “Okay, before we get into the important stuff, which I am guessing is going to be relaxed with my question, I’ll start,” she said, keeping her eyes upon the road. “I heard that you’ve been skimping out on training with Gladio again… Did something happen again? Or are you not ready to be back training with Gladio? What’s going on? And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that you are taking your schooling so seriously, but I gotta worry you know.”

Ciel looked to her mother, listening to her voice, and she sighed. Of course she was going to find out. It was most likely Clarus or Cor that ended up telling her. Gladio worked closely with both, so she was going to find out soon enough. “You got that right, it is connected to everything that’s going on,” Ciel confirmed, relaxing more into the seat of the car. “And yeah, I’ve been skimping out on training with Gladio, but it’s for something else completely… So, I thought using school as an excuse was a wise choice since there had been nights during training that I had homework that was hard and I felt like complete shit for making Ignis come to my apartment and help me…”

Evelyka smiled warmly at that. Her daughter had a heart of a lion. She was loyal and she cared for those in her life. Even if they fucked up badly. And it was obviously showing now that something was going through her daughter’s head that was rather important. “Ciel, what’s got you like this?” she asked, finally at a stop light, and looking to her daughter, her eyes filled with concern.

Ciel looked back to her mother, seeing the teal-green eyes that she’s known for years, staring right back at her. “I think I might have a rather bad crush on Gladio…” she whispered, her eyes dropping to the middle console between them.

Evelyka was not expecting those words to come out of Ciel’s mouth. The two of them continued the drive in silence. For once, Evelyka didn’t know how to react completely. She wasn’t good with relationships, and she was going to hope that she didn’t give shitty advice, especially when it came to things like this. It was just a crush after all. But how Ciel said it, the tone within her, it held the passion of have a bad crush on Gladiolus, but Ciel was never one to have crushes, even when she was younger. No idol. Other than maybe Nyx, Cor, and Titus, there weren’t many people that caught her own daughter's eyes.

“What could have possibly caused you to think that?” Evelyka asked, pulling into a parking spot near the nice cafe near the Citadel and both of them liked going to since it opened up a few years back.

“I think it might have been a thing for awhile, but it was only recently I realized it,” Ciel said, staying in the car because she really didn’t want the world to know that she was some kind of idiot. “On New Year's Eve, you know how Noctis was having a party at his apartment?” Evelyka nodded. “Noctis had just all of use over, you know, him and his girlfriend, Prompto with his girlfriend, Ignis, me, and Gladio with some other girl…Um, a couple of the Glaive.” Evelyka had looked to her daughter, surprised about Gladio with another girl, but then again, there has been gossip around Gladio among the female Crownguard members. “I was having fun, both the girls that Noctis and Prompto are dating are pretty nice. I spent a lot of time with Iggy, since we were both the single people… It was getting to about midnight and I was making my way to find Nyx, because why not go into the new year with kissing a hero, I was about to Nyx and I found Gladio. Perfectly right at midnight, I watched him kiss her and I felt like my entire world just crushed me again.”

Evelyka bit her lip. The emotions within her daughter's voice were strong. They showed the pain that she felt when she witness the moment, and she was beginning to see that maybe Ciel might have had a crush on Gladio the entire time but only grew as time went on, and she was around him a lot, before everything that happened and now this. “Did you feel the same way when you caught him with that other girl in September?” she asked, looking at her daughter, seeing the life kind of draining from her at the thoughts that could possibly going around within her head.

Ciel gave a weak nod, and she looked even paler with the thought of that coming back to her mind. She didn’t feel good all around. She never really thought that something like this would bother her so badly, but it was affecting her and it took her until now to realize that. Pretty much six months later that she had a crush on Gladio and she really didn’t like him being with other females. “I thought it was just a sister complex thing, but when one thinks about how they wish to be there instead, then that whole idea just gets thrown out the window.” Ciel said, now resting her head against the car window, staring out it. She really didn’t like it that it wasn’t a sister complex problem, she felt like the Astral’s above were betraying her in every way possible. “I didn’t ask for this, but because some fucking Astral above wanted it, it’s apparently happening.”

“Sometimes you don’t get a say in things that happen in your life,” Evelyka said, looking out the front windshield, she wasn’t sure how she was going to go about this. “With your father and I, we, I never thought I would end up getting pregnant that night. Yet I did, and I panicked. I ended up pushing your father away for the longest of times, before I ended up leaving Insomnia for a little bit while I pregnant with you. I never told him that you were his, but I apologized to him and we became friends again. Hopefully, someday, he’ll know that he has a daughter, and one that he’ll be very proud in.”

“You never really talked about dad before,” Ciel brought up, curious now. Her mother never talked about her father, but it was interesting that she now was. “What was dad like?”

“Oh, your father was something else,” Evelyka said, laughing a bit, shaking her head. “He might have looked strict, but he was kind, and always made sure that everyone was safe, even if it wasn’t his duty. Honestly, I thought your father was going to hate me because I wasn’t being open. Though seeing him again after a year having you, I was so happy that he wasn’t upset with me, but it was rather funny that he didn’t clue in that you were is daughter… Or still hasn’t.”

Ciel looked to her mother, wondering now. “So, dad is someone I know,” she said, getting the idea in her head. It was pretty obvious that it had to be someone she knew. But the question was who now.

Evelyka looked at her daughter, ruffling her head. “Yeah, someone you know, but I haven’t even told him about you yet, so can you wait on me for now?” she asked, knowing that it was asking a lot to not tell her who her father was, but it was for the best.

Ciel nodded her head, respecting her mother’s wishes. “Sure, I can wait,” she said, knowing that waiting would probably be worth it.

“Thank you,” Evelyka said, pulling her daughter into a hug. She was grateful that she managed to raise her daughter with a good heart. “About this whole Gladio crush, just wait, and don’t say anything. Maybe you’ll grow out of it, but please try and get along. I think it would be good to have that talk now, he’s all better and it would take off that edge you both have when around each other.”

“That would probably be a good idea,” Ciel agreed, hugging her mother back. “But right now, let me just enjoy my time with you.”

 

\---------------------------------

 

Ciel got a good amount of time in with her mother after that, even met up with Cor for dinner before she got dropped off at home. She walked into her building checking her mail before making her way up to her apartment. She was shifting through some of her mail, noting what needed to be dealt with soon and later. Finally getting to the comfort of her room, she was rather shocked to see who was sitting upon the couch, along with three others.

“Guys?” she asked, looking around at Gladio, Ignis, Prompto, and Noctis. She rested her stuff upon the kitchen counter, noting the air around them. “Um, what’s up?”

“What were you doing after school today?” Ignis started off, since it was obvious that the other three weren’t going to say anything.

Ciel gave Ignis a weird look, and pulled out her candy from dinner. “I was with my mother after school and then I had dinner with her and Cor, just hanging out with them, why?” she asked, opening up the candy and plopping it into her mouth to taste the sugary goodness it had to offer.

It was Prompto that was next, who seemed to have finally burst. “Why didn’t you tell us you were getting threats?” the blonde asked, looking at her, his blue eyes getting watery.

Ciel’s eyes widened at this, and looked at the really confused now. Threats? What threats? “...Um, what threats?” she asked, clearly confused as to what was even going on.

Noctis looked at her, wondering if she was joking right now. “All the threats that Cor showed us,” he said, pulling out the papers, handing them over to Ciel. “And the fact that Gladio had gotten a threat directed at you from a previous classmate of ours.”

Ciel looked at the letters, and surprised that they were directed towards her and saw that the address on them were to her mother’s home, which she didn’t know that he mail got sent to still. “Huh, I never saw these before… Cor must have kept them hidden from mom,” she said, setting them to the side, looking to Gladio. “You got a threat today that was directed at me?”

Gladio nodded his head, looking up to Ciel. The worry in his eyes had over onto the couch in seconds. What in the name of the Six had been said to Gladio to get him like this. “The guy had came at me with a knife, nothing that I couldn’t handle, but man, was he determined,” Gladio began, recalling back the day. “He started slashing and going off about how life has been hell towards him since Middle School after someone ratted him out to his parents, going about how they could have killed you so many times in the alleys, and now, they are going to do something serious about it now they are back,”

Noctis looked to Ciel, and stern look in his eyes, something was brewing inside of him, she could see it. “You said yourself that you weren’t getting the shit beaten out of you back then, were you just lying?” he asked, looking Ciel straight in the eyes.

“I told you, yeah, I got some nasty looks and mean words thrown at me, but nothing went beyond that,” Ciel covered up, not wanting to backlash at her after things has been calm for years now. “Plus, I didn’t know about these, I barely go to mom’s anymore, and if they got my address through the school system or anywhere, I never changed my mailing address… Normally Cor or mom bring my mail over.”

Ignis sighed, fixing his glasses after everyone had their share of words. “I think it’s wise that these threats haven’t been coming to Ciel directly,” he said, looking at everyone. “Cor has told Evelyka about this, and I am rather surprise that she didn’t bring it up today with you, but then again, it was probably better that way in the long run. The next course of action is of what we should do now.”

“Maybe Ciel should stay with Cor and her mother for a little bit,” Prompto suggested, but Gladio shook his head, looking at his hands.

“Cor and Evelyka aren’t around the house enough, so she would be would in more danger than it’s worth,” Gladio pointed out, causing Prompto’s shoulder to shrink. “Maybe she could stay with Prompto, or Noctis?”

Ciel shook her head. “That would be putting them at risk, most of the reason as to why I was mean words and nasty looks was because I’m friends with Noctis and because I protected Prompto when he got bullied,” she said, resting her back against the counter in her kitchen. “I mean, I could just stay home or even go stay with one of the Glaives.”

Ignis thought of the opinions that were presented to them. Cor and Evelyka knew what was going on, they were the ones that brought it to their attention and were the ones to go to Ciel about since it was something that either adults had the time to deal with for. As much as Evelyka wanted to protect her daughter, Ciel would put up an argument that she couldn’t always be watching out for her. They both had separate duties to the Crown, Evelyka’s being more important. “I think the most wise choice of action would be Ciel staying with a Glaive, because she is comfortable with them, and nobody would be at a risk, and I think these people will stay away from lower areas of the city.” Ignis said, but looked between Gladio and Ciel. “But then again, she could also stay at Gladio’s. It would give you an excuse to be at home more often, and hopefully gives you two the chance to talk,”

Ciel and Gladio looked to Ignis like he was crazy, and Ciel just shook her head. She hadn’t slept at the Amicitia manor in months now, and she barely goes over as it is. “Ignis, I think that would be putting more stress on me than not, I rather stay with Nyx or a Glaive,” she said, getting eyes upon her at the mention of Nyx’s name, which cause her to give them a confused look. “What?”

“Whenever the Glaive is mention, you always talk about Nyx, and you spend a lot of time with him if we’re busy,” Noctis commented, eyeing her. Ciel knew where this was going. “Are you like in some secret relationship?”

Ciel sighed, shaking her head, and glaring at Noctis, and this seemed to shut the others down. “I’m sorry that I get along with someone older than me, mom is cool with me staying with him, I did it a lot this summer,” she said, pushing herself off the counter to go to her fridge to look for something to snack on. “You guys should head home, or do whatever you need to do about this, as much as I wish I was told about this sooner, but whatever,”

It seemed like only three of them got the idea that Ciel was in a bit of a sour mood that nobody told her that someone was threatening her life(again), so those three left, and one stayed behind, still sitting upon her couch. Ciel looked from around the door, to see Gladio there still, silence hanging over both of their heads. Finally grabbing something to snack on, while bringing two sodas and took a seat next to him him and putting the food between them.

“Thanks…” Gladio said, taking the drink and opening it. Ciel nodded and started snacking on some meat skewers that she made the previous night on her own. “...Can we talk?”

Ciel looked to Gladio, pausing mid-bite and wondered if she was really ready for this conversation. “Well, I did say after you were healed, so yeah,” she said, finishing up what she was eating.

Gladio took a deep breath, and Ciel didn’t rush him. This was a lot to take in for either of them, and it was obvious that Gladio didn’t even know where to start at the given moment. Yet, she was going to wait still, he deserved that much. She was finishing up the third skewer before Gladio started to say anything. “I want to start off with, I’m sorry I treated you the way I did, you didn’t deserve that, and I was being completely selfish,” he said, still not looking at her, but it wasn’t Ciel was making an effort either. “I don’t even know where to begin with this, how to explain what I was even thinking when I decided this, but I thought that it had to happen, for the sake of both of us.”

Ciel finally did look at Gladio, and show how tense he really was about this all. His jaw was locked and his eyes were showing a battle that was raging on within himself. She’s seen this look upon his so many times in the past, and it never changed. Only seemed to make him hotter as time went on- Where in the world did that thought come from? Shaking her head a bit, she took a deep breath of her own. “Yeah, you were being really selfish, because for whatever reason, you thought I was pretty replaceable, and someone that wasn’t important after spending a lot of time together years prior,” she commented her, her voice taking the edge of how piss off she was still after all this time.

Gladio actually winced at that, he was never going to use to that tone in her voice, one that she’s never used on him until recently. “You gotta know that, I was only thinking about your well-being when I did this, it wouldn’t be good if the headlines read ‘Amicitia Not Punished for Breaking the Law’,” he pointed out, which caused Ciel look at him like he was crazy.

“What are you even saying? How would you be breaking laws with being around me?” she asked, completely confused at how that would even work or what was even going through his head.

“Ciel, you are illegal, underage, a minor,” he said, still looking deeply at his hands, and it was enough for Ciel to catch on, and look ahead to the tv.

A scandal. That was his problem with her. He didn’t want to risk getting either of their names tarnished due to the four year age gap between the two of them. It’s understandable if Gladio was seen with Prompto or Noctis, since they were males, and one of them was his charge. If it was Ciel… It would be a scandal that would take awhile to even be able to deal with, and there would be so many things that the media would just eat right up. Eventually, it was either that she was going to be separated from everyone, getting confined to the Citadel until this all calmed down or they literally have to put up the act of a fake marriage to make the people happy and for the rumors to stop. If that was his issue, why didn’t he just tell her in the first place? Ciel’s hands clenched in her lap, as she stared at the coffee table.

“Please try to understand where I am coming from with this,” Gladio said, knowing that look upon her face, she was conflicted but her anger showed.

“You could have told me in the first place, rather than just shoving me off like that,” Ciel said, looking up at Gladio, the pain really showing this time. “I’m not a child anymore, you can tell me these things. If it worried you that much, you should have talked to me, but no, you were only thinking about yourself and didn’t care about the other person that it involved.” She got to her feet, walking away from Gladio, going to the window, needing to put distance between them. “And you wanna know something, the entire city knows that I am serving Noctis too, so obviously they wouldn’t get the wrong idea as to why we hang out so much, so honestly, you’re either lying or you totally forgot about that. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, please leave my apartment so I can deal with this apparent threat issue I have.”

Gladio stood up, understanding that it was is queue to leave than. Of course he didn’t forget, but he was telling a little bit of a white lie. It wasn’t the whole scandal issue. It was the fact that Gladio was scared that he was going to do something that would fall into a scandal. Maturity had hit them both hard that summer, Ciel more so, she had pretty much lost a majority of her baby fat, and she was toning out thanks to training. She wasn’t gaining muscle like she was, but the strength was there. Gladio had opened the door, looking over his shoulder to see Ciel still standing at the window, her shoulders shaking. He so badly wanted to go back and hug her, but fought against it, leaving her there, closing the door behind him

It was going to be awhile before anything was going to be normal between the two of them ever again.


	6. Chapter Six - I Need a Hero, but Not the HERO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning, there is a bit of violence up ahead and a rather strong sense of underlying depression that kind of trickles into the second chapter. Like it's there, but not heavily.

Since this whole threat thing began, the day after she found out, then she started getting the calls and text messages from her mother. Ciel kept reminding her mother, that she was fine and that nobody knew where she lived. Yet, that was short lived a week after when the first threat had arrived to her door. Calling up Cor that Saturday morning, the Immoral finally made the call that Ciel needed to be somewhere else while they figured out which old classmates this could possibly be causing this. And it was going to take a while with going through records. It had been about two weeks since then and Ciel was currently curled up in the only arm chair in Nyx’s apartment while watching the tv. Two weeks with living with the hero, and now the Glaive was getting sent out to deal with the Empire that was threatening yet another town in Lucis. Nyx had left a while, he made sure that she was going to be okay. Noctis and Prompto had been texting her and calling her to see how she’s been holding up these last two weeks since she hadn’t exactly been in the best position to be going to school as often as she would like, and now with the Glaive gone, she was kind of on lockdown until they returned. 

Ciel finally got up, stumbling over to the fridge in hopes that there was something to snack on at least. Cor was going to be stopping by with more food since Nyx and Ciel had gone through the last two weeks and now she was having to make due with what she had for the time being since she didn’t know when Cor was going to be doing that. Obviously when he wasn’t busy, but who knew when that was going to be. If all else fails, Ignis would probably be more than glad to drop the food off to her, or she could hide out at Noctis’ for a few days. 

Speaking of Noctis, her phone went off on the counter, displaying Noctis’ contact name and a picture of probably last week when she was in school and she got to do some pretty epic art on his face that Prompto took a lot of pictures of. Reaching over and accepting the call and putting it on speaker. “What can I do for you, Princess?” she asked, pulling some things from the fridge before continuing her search on the shelves. 

“ _ Ah, I see you are still alive, and haven’t died of boredom yet, _ ” Noctis said, and it sounded like there were other people there, but further away. “ _ I just wanted to call to see how you were doing today, I heard the Glaive had gotten sent out, and I was a little worried that you were feeling alone, _ ” 

Ciel sighed. It was finally Valentines day, and she was spending it alone for the first time ever in her life. “I mean, Nyx and I had nothing planned, probably just turn the tv around and just lay in bed for most of the day,” she said, finally giving up on the search for decent food and just went about opening the jar of pickles and started eating them. “How’s the date going?” 

Noctis sighed, and it was obvious that he was tired. “ _ It’s going good… until Gladio decided to start wooing the ladies after five drinks, which is concerning but I texted Ignis, and he replied with it was normal, _ ” Noctis said, making Ciel pause and looked to the phone.

“Gladio getting tipsy after five drinks? That’s not normal,” Ciel commented, seeing Gladio drink before, it took him at least twenty to get him to the point of tipsy and needing to be a show off. 

“ _ Well, it’s obvious that Ignis isn’t telling me something, but I don’t want to dig into that mess right now, _ ” Noctis stated, but he had taken on a tone that showed a lot more than what he was saying. “ _...What happened after we left? Gladio came by the apartment the next day really out of it. _ ” 

Ciel knew that this was going to be coming up sooner or later, but it came much later than she thought it would. “Noct… I don’t even know where to begin with everything that went wrong…” she said, rubbing the back of her neck, feeling like shit again. “He’s so selfish at times… He keeps treating me like a child, like my input with things doesn’t matter, and he did this over something so stupid… I don’t even know what to think about it anymore. Like, I’ve tried so hard to understand what was going through his head, trying to see his view, but I can’t.”

“ _ It’s Gladio, he’s thinking like the shield he is, you know that, _ ” Noctis said, knowing exactly what was going through her head right at the moment. “ _ I know it frustrates you, and I understand. Yet, you also have to remember that he’s the oldest out of us and he only wants what is best for all of us in the long run. _ ” 

“Does trying to stop a scandal count as ‘brotherly love’?” she bluntly asked, resting her back against the counter, wishing to hear what Noctis had to say about this.

Noctis was silent, and there was shuffling heard and suddenly it seem quiet on his end, and she would have to guess that he went outside wherever they were at. “ _ He’s shoving you away to stop a scandal? _ ” he asked, obviously confused as all fuck right now, very much like he was. 

“His reasoning is because he hung out so much in the past, that our relationship with each other would be considered a scandal because I am underage, a minor,” she explained, almost getting all worked up once again. “...He could have talked to me, but he didn’t. He made the choice himself. I am my own person... I do the same job as him pretty much… And it hurts because I really like the Amicitia family but he’s over there so often that it’s hard to be around all of them…” 

“ _...Six… _ ” Noctis said, obviously frustrated by this as well. He knew that no scandal would be made between those two. It was impossible since most of the people within Insomnia would just not think anything of it, because Ciel and Gladio were always mentioned as guards to Noctis in any media. People knew that they were close. “ _ Do you want me to talk to him? Or is this something you have to do on your own? _ ” 

Ciel paused at the question. If she let Noctis do it, he was going to have to pull tone with Gladio and he didn’t like doing that, especially now since Gladio was trying so hard to fix his mistake. But Ciel was as much at fault, she was making this harder for Gladio, and she didn’t know how to go about it, she was so bipolar about this whole situation. “No, I have to do this. I’ve so hard on him, and I try each and every time to talk to him and he just… I get so upset because I want to know what actually happened, what is the truth,” she said, resting her head against the fridge, staring at the wall. “Noctis, he’s my friend… I don’t want to lose him.” 

“ _ Yeah, I get that, and I know you’ll make the right choice when it comes to the right time, _ ” he said, she could hear the smile in his voice, than there was a sigh. “ _ You sure you’re going to be okay there alone? _ ”

Ciel laughed, shaking her head. “Yeah, I’ll be okay, Yama said he’ll drop me off some food after work,” she said, knowing that she was going to be gifted with some good homemade food that she had for years before hand, and on occasions now. “Go back to your group date with Prompto and Gladio…” 

“ _ Okay, Prompto and I might video call you later, _ ” Noctis said, calling out to someone that he was going to be right in; probably Prompto wondering why he’s been out here for so long. “ _ Have a good night. _ ” 

“Thanks, Noct, Happy Valentines Day,” Ciel said, ending the call with that, simply setting her phone upon the counter. Looking back to the single item that she pulled from the fridge, and cringed because she just realized that none of that looked good. Since she got here, she’s been cleaning the place up for Nyx, since the Glaive never really have a lot of time to be resting around their own homes. 

Dropping the horrible food into the garbage, Ciel went back to the couch, beginning to see if there was actually something good on tv- Ciel never turned the tv on and then off so fast in her entire life. Her cheeks burned in utter embarrassment. So, that was the extra channel that Nyx was talking about that she should be careful about going to. Setting the remote down, she brought her knees up to her chest. 

She so badly wanted to forgive Gladio, but he made it so hard. Yet, he always made sure that she was doing okay, even now when she kept pushing him away. She was so hurt. Did she fall inlove with Gladio? Did she have a crush on him? She just didn’t know, Ciel was so confused, she never really looked at her emotions as a whole. She was so confused about everything. Ciel just wanted it to be Spring Break already so she could just get away from it all for a while. She didn’t have plans, but she most likely would make plans with Prompto and Noctis, so Gladio and Ignis would be there by default. Ciel needed to get her act together before then, she wasn’t going to lose Gladio. 

Just wanting some form of food right now, Ciel got up, and left Nyx’s apartment. She was going to head to Yama’s, it wasn’t too far, and it was the slums. How likely would it be that the people who were threatening her would find her here?

As that thought crossed her mind, a hand had grabbed her from the alley she was walking past, and she was pulled into the shadows, and the last thing that she remembered was a cloth over her mouth and some sickening sweet smell filling her nose. 

 

\--------------------------------

 

Ciel’s ears were ringing when she started coming to. Her head felt like it was filled with flan goo making it hard to even think completely or even figure out what the fuck had just happened. Looking towards her feet, she saw that her ankles were tied to the chair that she currently sat upon, which seemed to have jogged her memory enough. Right, she was kidnapped… And most likely going to get the shit beaten out of her, or possibly die. 

“Oh, look who finally decided to wake up?” a voice said from the shadows, making Ciel look up, and realize that there were several others in the room. Oh, this was going to be fun. “How are you feeling, bitch?” 

Ciel looked up, a cocky smile on her face. “Oh, I feel fantastic actually, I wasn’t expecting to wake up, so that’s nice,” she said, relaxing back into the chair and looking into the shadows. “So, I’m guessing there must be at least seven of you.” 

“HOW DID-” “Shut up, you moron!” There was a sound of struggle off to her right, and she couldn’t help but laugh as she faced ahead of her, knowing that there was at least one of them ahead of her. “Now, would you look at that? Did you expect me to be some kind of lap dog? Maybe getting pawned off for marriage by now? Nah, I’m just a crownguard woman protecting my charge.” Ciel simply stated, that cocky smile turning into a smirk. 

“You really are asking for it,” the first voice said, walking into the light now, and revealing who he was. Ah, she knew this person well. “Seems like you remember me.” 

“Damir’s son, you were going to a nice private school when your father had gotten removed from his job,” Ciel said, her blue eyes connecting with brown ones. “And making another child go through with slashing at Gladio, that was pretty risky.” 

Damir Jr. laughed. He stepped forward, tipping her chair backwards to get a better look down at her. His black hair slicked back, trying to make him look scary, but it had no effect on Ciel. He was the least scary thing that she knew. “I paid him well, he got the message across at least,” he said, smirking, running a single finger down her cheek. “It’s a shame such a pretty face was wasted on you, I wouldn’t have minded have you as a wife, but father knew that if he was to make the council push for you to be married, you would have went to Amicitia anyways,” 

Ciel jerked her head away from his touched, glaring at him, but decided to play along anyways. “At least Gladio isn’t a fucking pussy, and can actually pleasure a girl,” she said, causing a short bit of gasp to ring out around the room.

“You…” He only got out before sending a punch to her face, causing her chair to rock when he stepped away and grabbed her by the hair and yank it back, only for the response of it was getting blood spat on his face. “I see how it is, but at least I know that Amicitia wouldn’t be looking for you,” He said, leaning forward and getting to close for comfort. “Because, you are the last thing on his mind, considering I know about the little spat the two of you are in at the moment.” 

Ciel wanted to lash out, but she bit back any form of violence that she had. “It’s not a spat, and we’re working through it,” she said, not wanting to believe that Gladio wasn’t thinking about her. “He’ll come looking if he feels like something is up.” She just needed to believe that he still had her back. 

Damir Jr. just laughed in her face, smirking, knowing he had gotten her pinned. “Oh, you think he’ll come after you? If he did, he would only want an easy way into your pants,” he said, smirking a bit, leaning in next to her ear. “After all, why would he come looking for you when he has someone that he can fuck tonight, someone that is better than you?” 

Ciel’s breath caught in her throat, and she felt her eyes burn. This was Gladio, he would just abandon her. He wouldn’t leave her. Finally, the first sob broke from her chest when reality crashed itself upon her. 

Gladio wouldn’t come to her, because she pushed him away. He wouldn’t think that something was wrong. He would be at his apartment, balls deep inside of some girl, and she would be left here to die. Ciel looked up to Damir Jr., who stared her down, and took another hit at her, which she couldn’t feel. The punches continued happening, yet Ciel wasn’t mentally there at all. She let herself cry as she realized that she was such an idiot, that maybe she should just die here. 

Physically, Ciel’s body ached. First they started with punches, before leading to kicks. They had removed her restraints and started to try and make her fight. Than they brought out knives, cutting into her skin and filling the air with a faint copper-like smell. They left her on the floor to bleed out, and Ciel just looked at her arms as the cuts that were in her line of sight where the doors for the blood that seemed so bright against her pale skin. She was still crying, and she just wanted things to end right now. She didn’t want to be alive anymore and she didn’t want this to prolong anymore.

Ciel just closed her eyes, thinking that if she fell asleep now, things wouldn’t be so bad, and she would be a lot happier. At least than, people can say that she went away in her sleep rather than just laying there and not doing anything about it. 

 

\---------------------------

 

The sun filtered through the trees as they laid there. Water hitting upon rocks, birds singing their songs, among other things were the only sound they could hear, but if somebody was looking for them, they would hear the hush voices of children, talking about a book that was currently laid out between them. 

“ _ So, Shiva is the only one that can handle Ifrit? _ ” Noctis asked, as he laid on his back, tilting it back and looking to the two girls that were kneeling and looking at the book. “ _ But I thought you said Sofiel was the only one other than Bahamut that could deal with Ifrit, but now you’re saying that Shiva is the only one? _ ” 

Ciel laughed, her hair ending up in her face as she did so. “ _ Silly, if you were paying attention, Shiva is the only one that can put Ifrit to sleep since they are opposite elements, _ ” she said, looking down at the  cosmogony book. “ _ Sofiel and Bahamut are the only two that can handle all the other Astral’s since the two of them work rather closely with Etro, the Goddess of Death. _ ” 

Luna brushed her hair back and smiled at the two Lucian's that were talking about the Astral’s with her since she was meant to be the next Oracle after her mother. “ _ Sadly, Sofiel is said to be a myth since there is no physical evidence that she was actually from a higher plain, _ ” she explained, but she had this light in her eyes. “ _ But apparently to a very old book within our library, it is mentioned that Sofiel was very much alive and shared the same love for mortals like Shiva, but apparently 2000 years ago, somebody had murdered her physical body within a kingdom that is lost to us. _ ”

Noctis and Ciel were both looking at Luna with interest, and it was Noctis that decided that he had something to say. “ _ So, what was Sofiel, exactly? What was she the Goddess of? _ ” he asked, curious since there wasn’t much else that she could be in creation of.

“ _ Her duty was rather close with Bahamut, as he is the God of Light, Sofiel’s role was within Lucis, as the Goddess of Arms, choosing what weapons of the Lucis Kings were apart of the Royal Arms, which you will eventually get one day, _ ” Luna explained, poking Noctis’ nose, earning a laugh from the young Prince. “ _ She doesn’t need her physical body, but apparently it is rumored when the Chosen King arrives that she will find a person to fulfill her duty as Shield to the King. _ ” 

“ _ Sofiel is probably going to choose a Amicitia, since it would make sense,” _ Ciel said, turning the page to see that it was about the Seventh Astral that was lost within Eos History. “ _ I mean, who else would be better suited to the Chosen King’s Shield? _ ”

Noctis actually shrunk away a little bit, something was going through his head at the thought of the Astral within an Amicitia. “ _ I cannot imagine Gladio with mood swings… Like can you imagine if Sofiel had her lady time of the month while being hosted in Gladio’s body? _ ” he asked, physically shivering at the sheer thought of Gladio being cranky like a woman. 

“ _ Can Astral’s even have periods? _ ” Ciel asked, finding this a rather interesting thing to think about. Could Shiva and Sofiel have periods? Obviously that Leviathan couldn’t, it was a bloody fish. But those two. “ _ And why Gladio? I think Clarus would be so much worst. Like I would feel so sorry for your father. _ ” 

Noctis and Ciel both kind of got a horrified look on their face when they realized something at the same time, making Luna curious. “ _ What is wrong? _ ” she asked, rather curious as to what could possibly be bugging the two. 

“ _ Gladio has a three year old sister… _ ” Noctis said, sighing, but clearly still thinking about what the future had in store with them. “ _ Imagine her with Sofiel… That’s like… _ ” 

“ _ No. Noctis. Let’s not even get into that. _ ” Ciel said, already thinking what her mother was like with others, and it was only  a preview of what was possibly going to happen to Ciel when she was older.

Luna started laughing, seeing where they were getting their ideas from, but at least they were both curious children. Yes, Luna was only twelve but these two were only eight, and they still had so much to learn about the world. Ciel and Noctis looked to Luna, wondering why she was laughing, but they both smiled, since Luna’s smile was kind of infectious. 

“ _ I look forward to see what the future has in store for you two. _ ” Luna finally said, wiping tears from her eyes, only to start laughing once again when the two eight year olds groaned, clearly not wanting to think of any other things that were going to cause them troubles when they were older. 

 

\-----------------------------

 

The force of what was shaking her body was what caused her eyes to open. Ciel could still tell that she was in the place that she was when she first woke up. The ground was still cold, but at least her head was off the ground and on something soft. There were voices there, all seeming rather far away. Everything seemed to move slowly when she moved her head around, and there were faces, but she couldn’t make them out due to the light above them, blinding her. There was a soft slap to her face, and that seemed to make things clear right up oddly enough.

“-Ciel, come on, pull yourself back together,” Crowe said, her voice soft, like a nurse would to a child when they were just waking up from a rather high fever in the hospital. Ciel shifted her head to look at her, her eyes squinting to get a better look. “Hey, there you go, it seems like you’re coming back nicely, how are you feeling?” 

Ciel tried to talk but nothing came out other than his scratchy sound and followed by some coughing. Her throat felt like sandpaper and she didn’t like it. Her head got tilted up and there was Pelna with some water, holding the bottle to her lips and helping her drink. She was resting back down and she saw that Libertus was there, this drew concern for Ciel as she forced herself up, causing the three that were there to follow after her, making sure that she didn’t do anything to quickly. 

“Where’s Nyx?” she asked, searching around with area, seeing that more lights had been turned on, and her pervious clothing resting upon the chair that she originally been in when she first arrived here. 

Pelna brushed back her hair, soothing her a bit. “He’s outside with Luche, he’s pretty freaked up,” he said, his voice soft, and trying to find a way to relax her. “Nyx found you.. You almost died, he was so scared.” 

Ciel pushed herself to her feet, and began the walk towards the only door that she could really see at the moment. Crowe was calling her to come back, but she continued forward, opening that door to reveal that it was night out, and there stood Luche and Nyx. Both looked up as soon as the door opened, and saw her standing there, in a pair of Nyx’s old clothing and bandages. Nyx pushed himself off the alley wall and took like two wide strides towards her and pulled her into his arms. Ciel didn’t fight against it, she welcomed it, and began sobbing once again into his chest. 

After that, most of it was just a muttered up mess. Luche, Crowe, Pelna, Libertus, and Nyx took her up to the Citadel where pretty much everybody seemed to be waiting. Evelyka was the first to rush to her daughter, pulling her to her body, seeing that hallowed look within her eyes. Words were thrown around her. Something about Damir’s son, along with other names and something about blood. Ciel just kind of became numb. Evelyka tried to get her to talk, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak, and nobody forced her to, though the feeling of her mother at her side was too much, and she pulled herself away from the warm body that she’s known all her life and climbed the steps of the Citadel, people calling after her. 

She went to her room in the living quarters of the Citadel. Ciel luckily had her stuff with her, and she pulled her keys from the bag to unlock the door, only to be locking once again behind her. She tossed her things onto the chair before going over behind the screen and falling onto her bed, her face looking at the wall. She didn’t bother with the lights or anything. Ciel just felt empty.  

Ciel didn’t even remember the next several days that she was there while they began to get this dealt with. Everyone tried to get her to come out, but nothing worked. She barely ate. She didn’t really move around unless needed to. When she got told that she could return home and start going to school again, Ciel didn’t, she just stayed at the Citadel and went from there to school. Noctis and Prompto tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t say anything. Damir’s son’s words were playing in her head over and over again, along with the sudden realization of many things. 

Ciel was at fault more so than Gladio. She was the one that decided to push him away. Of course, Gladio wouldn’t have gone looking for her. He would have been staying balls deep in that girl, he wouldn’t have even realized that Noctis was messaging him, telling him that Ciel wasn’t answering her phone. Ciel truly fucked up the friendship that she wanted back so badly since the beginning of the school year. 

It was a solid month after the incident when Noctis had finally got her cornered, worried heavy on his face. “Six, Ciel you look like shit,” he said, reaching forward to touch her, but quickly drew his hand back when she jerked away from him. “...Hey, are you okay?” 

Ciel suddenly felt a surge of fear shoot through her. She was never scared of Noctis. She was never scared of anybody. Or people touching her. Though her mind thought back to Damir’s son touching her. Ciel had healed completely, and amazingly without a single scar on her body. But, that ouch lingered. Ciel shook her head, shoving past Noctis before running off, and not back to the Citadel for once. Her legs continued to carry her to the Insomnian slums, going down stairs or jumping over railings; that she barely managed to land due to the recent lack of training that she’s been doing. She finally made it to Nyx’s, walking in without knocking, shocking the Glaive greatly. 

“Ciel- Hey, what’s wrong?” Nyx was off his bed in seconds, getting over to the teenager, and grabbing her before she fell. She folded herself into Nyx’s body, listening to his heartbeat, finding something soothing about it. Nyx didn’t ask questions, he brushed her hair back, before lifting her up and carrying her back to bed with him. 

They laid there, nobody saying anything. The night seemed to have passed, unknown to Ciel. She had completely zoned out, more like passed out, and when she woke up, there was Cor waiting for her. The Marshal was dozing off in the single chair that was a cross from the TV, obviously tired. Most likely having to deal with her mother most of the night freaking out. Probably heard about what happened between her and Noctis. Sitting up in the bed, not making an attempt to be quiet, awoke the Marshal. Cor’s eyes slowly opened, landing on the girl sitting in the bed, eyes heavy and tired. 

“How are you feeling?” Cor asked, his voice heavy with sleep. He sat up more, and stretched himself out and rubbed his eyes. “Noctis said you were really jumpy yesterday when he reached out to touch your skin.” 

Ciel looked to her lap, not able to bring a voice about that. She knew that she was going through some form of trauma over this, but she didn’t want to admit it. Not to Cor. Or her mother. To Noctis. Nobody. She was a strong girl and she would get over it. Than again… She was saying that about the whole Gladio thing for months now, and that feels like it’s only gotten worse with feelings and the fact that she keeps pushing him away. She just didn’t want to face anything because things were changing rather quickly and she didn’t know how to handle it all since each situation was something that she wasn’t trained for. 

Cor shifted in his seat, knowing that look in her eyes. He’s seen the exact same look within her mother as well. “What happened in the warehouse?” he asked, finally deciding that it was time to start pushing for answers from her. 

“...Do you think Gladio has stopped caring about me?” Ciel asked, her voice weak, and really showing the struggle that she’s been going through since the night she awoke, somehow still alive after all of that. 

And that was a question Cor wasn’t sure how to answer. He knew that things weren’t getting better between the two, and it’s gotten to the point that Ciel was at last depressive level, where as Gladio seems to be fucking more females each night as a way to cope. Cor took a deep breath, and got up off the chair and went to the bed, and kneeled down next to it and took her hand. “He’s never going to stop caring,” he said, looking at her, watching a little bit of life return to her. “If you think that Gladio isn’t worried right now about you, than you are very wrong. When Noctis arrived to the Citadel, hours after not returning anybody’s calls or text message, and the same with Prompto, all of us there, after they had spent those hours searching for you. They were worried. And when Gladio heard, he was ready to rip the city apart,” Using his free hand, Cor brushed back her tangled brown locks, and got her to look him in the eyes. “Whatever Damir’s son said to you, forget it. You know Gladio. Yes, he’s being a complete idiot, and has been these past few months, but you know that he would be by your side if you called.” 

Those blue eyes that held so many emotions, yet looked so hallowed, were finally coming back to life. Cor felt better knowing that she was going to be okay. Even if it was only a little bit, it was better than nothing. Ciel simply fell into Cor’s body, showing how exhausted she was. Even with all the sleep she had just gotten last night, she was clearly mentally tired still and would be like that for awhile. Cor held her there, giving the girl the safe place she needed right now. 

 

\-----------------------

 

“Well, it’s good to see that you’re back now,” Noctis commented at lunchtime, about two weeks after being taken care of by Nyx, Cor and her mother while she tried to make a healthier recovery, taking that time off school to do so. “Cor said that it was a process to get you back to working order again.” 

“Um, I’m pretty sure nobody can walk away from something like that easily,” Prompto pointed out, resting his head upon Ciel’s shoulder as he play with the wrapped of a food item. “Anyways, Spring Break is coming up soon, what should be do? Stay with Noctis at his apartment?” 

Ciel shook her head. “Nah, maybe we should go camping at that lake within the city and let the Prince fish, then at least Ignis would get a bit of a breath,” she suggested, only to get a grin from the Prince in question. “Okay, what is that that you need to tell us. You obviously had something planned.” 

Noctis leaned back against the wall, grinning at this two best friends, and played around with the charm on his phone. “You can thank my father for this, but he got us a Spring Break vacation in Lestallum,” he said, getting the two to almost lunge at him from shock and wanting more answer. “Plus, it’s also a break for himself and a few others. Like Evelyka and Cor. Clarus is bringing Iris and Jared, since Jared has family there, and Iris is obvious. Of course, Ignis and Gladio are going to be there, but there are some Glaives that are coming as well.”

Ciel leaned forward than, smiling happily. “Meaning, Nyx, Crowe, Libertus, Pelna, and Luche,” she said, knowing exactly that Drautos would send if the King was requesting Glaive and she was involved. Last thing anybody wanted was  Tredd with a broken nose again. 

“You got that very much correct,” Noctis said, knowing that he could always trust her to know who they were going to get, and he did too, but he liked seeing her excited over it. “I heard that there are some pretty cool tombs out there.” 

Prompto leaned forward, placing a book on Noctis’ table and pointing to one of the many tombs that were there. “Apparently, this tomb might be connected to one of the king’s or queen’s Lucis, so I think it would be something to look into,” he said, leaning back and taking a bite from his lunch. 

“I don’t see why we couldn’t do it, I mean, we can take like Nyx, Pelna and Luche with us, they’re into stuff like that,” she said, leaning over to Noctis’ desk and getting a look about the tomb. “The entrance is near Old Lestallum, so, we wouldn’t be too far away.” 

The three of them started making plans for the Spring Break, wanting to get the full experience while they were there. Ciel wondered what would be in store for them all. Sure, everybody would be there, but there were some things that concerned her. Maybe if there was time, she could talk to Gladio, and apologize, and try to explain herself better and with how she was feeling… And not get snappy at him. Surely, Prompto and Noctis would help with getting that time for her. This wasn’t just taking a strain on her, but everyone around them as well. With that thought in mind, Ciel started to make a mental list of what she possibly needed to bring when they headed out to Lestallum. 


	7. Chapter Seven - Times are Starting to Change

The temperature was getting warmer the closer they got to Lestallum. At least they had the sea breeze for a little bit before they started going inland again. Ciel rested her head against her arms that were folded over the door of Noctis’ car. The roof was down, and everyone was just kind of quiet. There was talking all the way to Galdin Quay, but after having their little stop there and the small incident of Gladio flirting with someone, they were on their way again, but with less chat. The music played through the car, the sound of Prompto’s camera going off on occasions. Noctis was passed out between Prompto and his Shield. Ignis was driving, and he was actually in a t-shirt, which had been a blunt of everyone’s jokes in the first half of their trip. Ciel was in the passenger seat, giving Gladio the foot room he needed and the space for the two of them.

Ciel recalled the incident in Galdin, and felt herself just drown into guilt. They were doing so well, and Prompto made a comment in Hammerhead that he was happy that the two of them were getting back to normal levels, but when they arrived in Galdin, and Gladio had disappeared, only to find him flirting with some girl, and obviously trying to get into her pants, Ciel just lost it. Not as badly as before, but she had stormed up to him and punched him a good one, going off about how he could have answered his phone, and called him a shitty Shield before she stormed back to the Regalia, of course, with guilt blanketing her as she was utterly pissed off at him. There went all the hard work. She just wanted to be crushed by the Titan when they got to Lestaullm, at least than her death would be quick.

This probably wouldn’t have happened if the Glaive and the King’s Crownguard had came on the same day that they did, but that wasn’t going to happen since wiser to split the traveling packs apart due to the Empire and what not. Hopefully she could fix things before they all arrived. Using the side mirror to glance at Gladio, she saw that he decided to take nap as well. His hair was really growing up from before. He was starting to look like his father more everyday, but Ignis had pointed out that Gladio was going to be getting his own flare soon. Noctis’ hair was getting shaggier as well. It was kind of in that awkward stage right now, but she had a feeling that it was going to be like his childhood style but just a lot more hair, and probably longer.  Ignis was beginning to style his hair somedays. It was interesting to see what he was trying out, though it would seem like he was going to be staying with the spike up. Prompto even began styling, but it was only for like a day and he just got tired of it since he didn’t want to be waking up so early in the morning to have his hair looking nicer. As for herself, she had recently gotten a haircut, her brown locks were down a little past her shoulders and it was thinned out. It felt nicer and it looked better on her in opinion of her mother and a few others. At least they were starting to find their selve now.

Ciel’s phone was what broke the silence and she looked down, quickly turning off the sound and noticing that her new messaged was from Gladio. Glancing to the mirror again, she saw him looking down at his phone, looking like he was busy doing something on it, nobody was really paying attention to him. Glancing back to her phone, she opened the messaged, curious of what he had to say.

{Behemoth}  
- _What’s got you so gloomy?_

{Pupu}  
- _..._  
- _nothing_

{Behemoth}  
- _I call lie on that_  
- _Something is obviously bugging you_  
- _Don’t think I can’t tell…_

{Pupu}  
- _Nothing is wrong, it’s just hot…_

{Behemoth}  
- _Ciel, please._  
- _Is this about Galdin? How you reacted?_  
- _Don’t think Iggy and I didn’t notice you kind of go and sulk off_

{Pupu}  
- _...Gladio, please, not now._

{Behemoth}  
- _Please… I fucked up and I want to fix this, we were doing so well…_

{Pupu}  
- _I can’t talk about this right now, I want to enjoy my Spring Break, please_

{Behemoth}  
- _I know, but can we hang out, just you and I, one day?_

{Pupu}  
- _...yeah, I would like that a lot_

Ciel smiled down at her phone, happy that Gladio was still able to realize when she was down and out. At least he would be there when she needed him. Though, the words that Damir’s son had said to her still weighed heavily on her mind. She didn’t know the extent of Gladio’s attention. Or how far he would go to keep her safe, and she would find that out over time. A rather long period of time. If things don’t work out with Gladio, she still had the Glaive. She still had her friends. That’s all that mattered. But Gladio was important as well. She was going to work through this, she promised herself that at least.

Unknown the the female in the front of the car, Gladio had looked up from his phone to see the smile on her face before it had dropped, but it came back. Whatever she was thinking about, even if it was negative for a moment, Gladio was going to take away her fears. That’s what friends down, make sure that their friends are okay. And never injured. Especially if it was them that caused the pain in the first place.

Silence and keeping to themselves had fallen back onto them once again. Ciel didn’t have much else to say to Gladio after that, and it would seem that he had nothing else to say as well. Once they got to Lestallum, she would text Nyx to let him know that they made it there safely and that she looked forward to them arriving. She rested back into her chair again, grabbing the phone jack and pulling her phone in to start the music, nobody questioned it, though Ignis had gave Ciel a look when she did. Nothing could get past Ignis. It was pretty much impossible.

“Now this is a classic, Prompto commented, sticking his head up front, between Ciel and Ignis. “I was wondering when the music would be back to us,”

Ciel laughed, shaking her head, looking to the blonde. “The summer before High School, Noct, you and I were dancing pretty much to this song every night at Noct’s place,” she said, remembering those times well, those times when Noctis and Prompto were trying so hard to keep Ciel in a happy place with Gladio being a dick. “I’m surprised we didn’t get a noise complaint.”

“Soundproofing does wonderful things,” Noctis commented, finally waking up, and before the ride was over. “I’m glad that we could have a nice loud summer without getting the Crownguard knocking at the door and lecturing us.”

“Can you imagine Cor at four in the morning to do so?” Prompto asked, leaning back in his seat, clearly entertained by the thought.

“Cor at four in the morning is a Cor you don’t want to witness,” Ciel said, thinking back to when she had called Nyx one night, while he was on the battlefield and she was being a little loud and Cor came in, and she thought Cor training or getting upset with Soldiers were bad, this was on a whole other level. “Trust me, don’t fuck with Cor at four in the morning,”

Noctis laughed, amused by all the possibilities that were probably running through his head right now with that suggestion from Ciel. “I’ll take your word for it since Cor pretty much lives with you,” he said, relaxing once again into the back seat. “I see we managed to get to Lestallum pretty soon,”

Ciel looked around, noticing that change within the wilderness. They might be five minutes away from Lestallum now if she remembers correctly. She hadn’t been here for a while, not since she was at least nine. Her grandparents were from Insomnia but decided to move outside the wall, since they weren’t too worry about her mother anymore once she was accepted into the Crownguard, fully. After Ciel had turned nine, the couple had moved to Altissia, even if it was under empire rule. She hadn’t seen her grandparents since, but they still send letters.

“Thinking about your grandparents?” Ignis asked, and that caused Ciel to give an annoyed sighed. Like she mentioned earlier, nothing got passed Ignis. He kind of just knew. “You have that look of whenever you hear mention or see photos of Lestallum,’

“I haven’t seen them in several years, and I use to come here for so long,” Ciel mentioned, looking onto the rock face at her side. “I sadly can’t go to Altissia, because of the risk of finding out of who my mother is and all that fun stuff.”

“We could always all go together,” Noctis suggested, and this earned, a swift glare from Ignis, Gladio and Ciel. “...Or not.”

Gladio was up straight, clearly kicking into bodyguard mode right than there, along with Ignis and Ciel as well. “You can’t be serious? You are the Prince of Lucis. If the Empire got their hands upon you, they could pretty much get your father to do whatever he wished,” he stated his voice dropping in deepness considering how serious this conversation had turned. “You cannot even joke about that, you are the Prince and you need to start thinking about your Kingdom.”

“I have to agree with Gladio, Noct, you are in no right to suggest such a dangerous task at all, especially right now,” Ignis said, being the adviser that he was raised to be for Noctis. He kept his eyes on the road though, since he was the one driving and it would be horrifying if something happened to them while under Ignis’ well mannered driving. “I know you wish to help Ciel out, but she wouldn’t wish for anything to happen to you,”

Ciel turned around in her seat and nodded her head. “Noctis, Gladio and Ignis are right, you have to start thinking about the entire Kingdom, not just about us five together as a whole anymore, we have to start asking like the Crownguards that we were raised to be,” she said, knowing that it was a rather dangerous thought for Noctis to have, since graduation was drawing in closer now than ever, and they couldn’t afford Noctis to be just thinking that he was normal anymore. “I can ask them to come visit, they are always up for that. And they promised to be in Insomnia come graduation.”

Noctis sighed, looking out the side of the car, and Ciel felt bad. She knew that Noctis was just trying to make her feel better, but she had to start acting her role like the other two in the car, and she hated it so much. Ciel didn’t want Noctis to think that she was against him too. She knew the burden that he has to carry upon his shoulders. They all had their own burdens to carry as well.

“Hey, buddy, you know Ciel is just worried about you as a friend, more so than Ignis and Gladio,” Prompto said, smiling at the Prince, earning a look from Noctis, who sighed once again, defeated.

“You can never let me hate them can you?” Noctis asked, poking at Prompto’s side and earning a slap of the hand from the blonde.

“They’re your friends more so than mine,” Prompto said, smiling warmly at Noctis. “And you know yourself that you can never stay truly mad at any of them,”

Ciel laughed, returning back to the proper position in her seat, resting her head against the rest. She stared out the window and when she glanced at the side mirror, she saw Gladio was looking at her, causing her to smile. Things were slowly beginning to work themselves out on their own, and she was more than grateful that things weren’t becoming awkward. She let the music sing through the air, and when the next song came on, she started singing with Noctis and Prompto since _Party Rock Anthem_ was pretty much their song. Ignis had a smile on his face and Gladio just shook his head and went back to reading his book.

The rest of their trip to Lestallum was filled with noise and made it go by that much quicker. They got to the Leville pretty quickly, and the three friends were already out into Lestallum before Ignis and Gladio could even leave their room. Prompto was taking endless photos and Noctis was kind of roaming. As for Ciel, she was just hanging back at the weapons rack and looking at what they had, finding a lot of it interesting, picking the weapons apart while she looked at them. Breaking them down from years of learning. She still couldn’t summon up her own weapon yet, but she could feel that she was close, just needed that last single push to get her there.

“No surprise that you’re invested in the weapons,” Came a backhanded comment from a gruff voice.

“Gladio, cut me some slack, your father pounded all the knowledge into me,” Ciel pointed out, not bothering to turn around from her looking, not wanting to look at the older boy. Gladio moved himself next to her and began to look as well, letting the silence hang over them. The vendor even seemed uncomfortable by it since they were just silent.

The two of them continued to look for a few minutes before taking a leave, especially when the vendor kept coughing. They got the idea pretty quickly that they were scaring away buyers from the vendor’s wares. The two walked the streets in silents and they wouldn’t even look at each other. The window of shops at their attentions, or so it would seem. Everyone who walked past them kept giving them weird looks. Ciel was going to admit, the two of them were an open book right now, since they were standing a good few inches from each other, if not half a foot apart. Finally, they came to a fork in the road and they actually stopped walking.

“I should probably go off and find Noctis and Prompto,” Ciel said, still looking towards the floor, not sure how she was even meant to go about this, the two of them haven’t gotten comfortable yet with each other and it was just not right being alone together.

“Yeah, you should probably do that, I gotta talk with Ignis about our plans,” Gladio said, and hearing his voice clearer, made Ciel look up and meet eyes with Gladio. It had been a rather long time that her steel, blue eyes had met his amber hazel ones, and it actually caused a smile.

“Tomorrow, morning run and breakfast?” Ciel asked, getting into a comfortable stand and even crossed her arms.

Gladio stared at her, shocked, but it brought an easy smile upon her lips. “Yeah, that sounds good,”

Ciel smiled, separating from Gladio and not knowing that her night was going to have in store for her.

 

\-----------------------------

 

“You wanna do what!?” Ciel whispered-yelled at Noctis, glancing towards the door of their room and staring at the Prince again with his belief. “Do you seriously think I would agree to this? Or even let this happen?”

Noctis looked her with the plainest look upon his face, clearly not seeing the problem. “Yes, I know you’ll come along because you need it, you’ve been so tense since Hammerhead, but less before you joined us,” Noctis whispered back, also making sure that Ignis wasn’t coming through the door. “Come on, just a late night cruise to Old Lestallum, nothing could go wrong,”

“Many things could go wrong, a large one being the fact that there are demons,” Ciel sternly whispered back, glaring at the clock on the bedside table. It was two in the morning, Gladio and Ignis had gone to bed awhile ago. Both checking in on the three before they went to sleep. “Prompto, you can’t be seriously considering it!” Her attention was on the blonde that was getting his camera ready.

“What is so bad with sneaking out for a little bit, Noct is the only one who can drive, and it’s just like maybe an hour there at least, I heard that the shots from Old Lestallum are worth the risk,” Prompto said, and wrapped an arm around Noctis’ shoulders. “And our Prince here wishes to break rules,”

Ciel let her face drop down into her hands that were held up by elbows resting on her legs. She would tell them to go and ask Ignis, but he never likes driving at night, since they only really had Gladio who could fight. And she couldn’t let them go off on their own. “Fine, but we got there, let Prompto get his shots and we come right back, because I seriously don’t want to become brain dead thanks to Gladio,”

The two teenage boys simply high-fived each other and finished getting read, Ciel said there, pulling her hair down from it’s ponytail and pulling a hoodie over her body quickly. Sure, Lestallum was pretty warm even at night, but for some reason, things just seemed cooler now that they were about to do something that would end up with them getting into some serious trouble if they end up getting caught. Ciel finally got to her feet, carefully slipping on her shoes. If any form of sound that sounded life threatening or someone getting hurt, both Ignis and Gladio would be in there in seconds.

“How exactly are we getting down?” Ciel asked, going over to the balcony that they were standing, and the smirk that Noctis got upon his face made her stomach curl. “Oh my Six, you cannot be serious?”

Noctis’ answer was him simply summoning a dagger and holding out his free arm to the other two. Ciel got squished between the two boys and as Noctis’ threw the dagger, reality became a sharp blur and they were suddenly upon the ground. Prompto looked like he was ready to lose the dinner that they ate that night. Ciel was use to warping by this point thanks to Nyx and Noctis practicing how to warp with other people. Ciel was about to question on how they were going to get the keys before Noctis had pulled the spare set from his pocket, and it was clear that he somehow managed to get those away from Cor.

The three of them took the less obvious route back towards the parking lot, taking as many alleyways as possible, but also respecting the sleeping people that were most likely going to be waking up within a few hours while they were probably just getting back from sleeping. Hush talks were shared until they were in the safety of the car and on the road towards old Lestallum.

Ciel was sitting in the front seat with Noctis, who was behind the wheel driving. Prompto sat in his usual place, behind the driver when Ciel or Gladio weren’t around to be there. He was looking through photos and music was softly playing. “Honestly, I was kind of scared there for a second, I swear Gladio was going to wake up and realize that we were-” she was starting to say before Noctis slammed onto the breaks, almost sending her through the window. “Noctis what is- Oh…”

Prompto had pulled himself up between the seats, wondering what caused such a strong stop, only to see the danger that they were currently in. There was an Iron Giant standing in the middle of the road, and it seemed like he was staring off with them. Ciel looked behind them, to see if Noctis’ could turn them around before the Giant decided to move but only to see that it was blocked with a Ronin, and they were trying to make it look like nothing happened to the car while they were out.

“Noct, what do we do?” Prompto asked, his voice going up a scale, and sound a lot more girly. “We have nowhere to run,”

“We fight.” Noctis answered simply, still not taking his eyes off the Iron Giant before them.

Ciel ripped her eyes away from the Ronin that was beginning it’s stalk towards them. Her eyes now stared deeply at Noctis, like he was crazy. “Are you nuts?! You can barely stand a fight against Gladio! Let along Clarus and Cor!” she reminded him, before pointed towards Prompto. “He barely knows how to fight MT’s and I can’t summon any kind of weapon! How are we going to fight against two really strong deamons, huh?!”

“No, Ciel’s right, we should call Ignis and Gladio, we’re in a dangerous situation…” Prompto agreed, taking none of what Ciel said to heart, and actually suggesting a good suggestion.

“And than what? Run as far as possible before we’re sliced? Or do we sit here and be crushed?” Noctis asked, actually taking his eyes away from the Iron Giant and looking to his two friends. “Either we fight or we die, which do you choose?”

Ciel gripped at her phone that was in her hands, and before sighing. “Then someone call Ignis and Gladio, we might be able to hold them off until they arrive,” she said, not being able to ring herself to even dial their number.

Prompto had brought out his phone, even going as far as summoning his gun and dialing Ignis’ numbers. “I’ll do it, and I can deal with the Ronin, the bullets should slow it down, you and Noctis deal with the Iron Giant, it’s going to take a lot more than just Noctis to knock it back a bit,” He said, finally tapping the call button and getting out of the car and waiting for the Adviser to pick up.

Noctis and Ciel climbed from the car, him summoning up his Engine Blade. Gun shots were going off behind them, and the Iron Giant had started his approach towards them. Simply enough, Ciel and Noctis rushed off towards the deamon, both of them coming up with a plan as they moved ahead, not sure if they were going to be coming out of this alive after this. Ciel picked up the pace, getting in front of Noctis, playing the role of distraction as Noctis warped above the Iron Giant’s head. As for Ciel, she saw the sword that was lifted above her head, jumping out of the way to dodge the blade that was ready to come down upon her head. Something she really wouldn’t have wanted in the first place. Noctis brought the Engine Blade down upon the Giant's head and caused him to take a step back, almost letting go of his blade due to the sudden attack of another. Noctis was back in the air once again when the Giant had its footing and his sword from the ground. The road was a mess that’s to it slamming it’s sword into the ground. This time with a swing, easily dodging it by rolling underneath it.

Noctis sent another hit towards the Iron Giant before Prompto had cried out, Ciel looked over to Prompto to see that he had gotten side checked by the Ronin and was currently laying on the ground, trying to reach for his gun while the deamon was started to slowly walk towards him, ready to finish his kill. “Noct! I’m going to help Prompto!” she called out to the prince before breaking out into a run.

Along the way, Ciel swiped up the gun, tossing it back to Prompto, even going as far as to run past him before snapping her fingers and pointing towards the Ronin. Oddly enough, the deamon stopped, wondering what in the world that she was doing, before getting ready to attack. Ciel smirked, pointing towards the sky, and snapping her fingers again, and her hand swiping down and at the Ronin once again, this time something happened. Thunder sounded across the area before lightning struck the Ronin, killing it upon contact, thanks to Prompto littering it with bullets.

“Did you get ahold of Ignis?” she asked, helping Prompto to his feet as the two of them began to pick up their pace to get over to Noctis and help him with the Iron  Giant.

Prompto shook his head, holding up his phone to show that he had no service. “I had gotten service for a second before the Ronin body checked me five feet away from it,” he said, slipping his phone back into his pocket and started taking aim and began shooting at the Giant.

Ciel rushed ahead, dodging bullets this time as well, sending shocked of lightning at it, along with shards of ice and balls of fire. This had to be the biggest thing that any of them had taken down, and it didn’t help that it was dark as hell, and that the only light they really had was from the car that was parked a few feet away. The three of them retreated back after ten minutes of continuously attacking it.

“If feels like we aren’t weakening this thing at all,” Noctis said, sounding rather out of breath, but who could blame him, he was warping all over the place. “Still no luck with service?”

“I haven’t even tried to look for once since I started shooting at this thing, I don’t know if the bullets even went in or just bouncing off because it’s so dark,” Prompto said, shaking his arms, showing that kick back from the gun was causing his arms to go numb a bit after continuously firing it off.

“Well, you haven’t hit me yet, and went ever I’ve used lightning, it seems to be getting drawn to where you shot at,” Ciel commented, summoning up some fire in her hands. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,”

The Iron Giant was getting closer to them, and they were at their last boundary, unless they wanted to get the car completely total. But Noctis seemed to have something cooking up in his head. “If you were to stay back here and trying to build up a lot of lightning magic, Prompto and I could try and get more bullets into that thing, do you think you could kill it in one shot?” he asked, looking to Ciel, who looked back at him, and started to do a little bit of math within her head.

“I probably could, but it’s take like five minutes at least, and no more, I can barely handle huge amounts of built up magic yet,” she said, beginning to build up the lightning now, concentrating upon it. “I would start getting started on those bullets, five minutes is going to go by quickly,”

Prompto and Noctis rushed out, Noctis changing his weapon from the Engine Blade to a gun as well. The two of them started firing, burying as many bullets into the skin of that thing as possible, Ciel stood back, watching the fight, but being careful that she didn’t cause a premature attack lose while the two were still filling the Iron Giant with bullets when a thought crossed Ciel’s mind. The sword was made of Iron, something that could conduct the lightning, if he held it straight up in the air.

“Noct! I need to get him to hold the sword up towards the sky!” She called out, mentally calling herself stupid for not realizing that sooner.

Noctis looked behind him, he was giving her the look of ‘are-you-crazy?’ “HOW WOULD THAT HELP!?”

“IT WILL ACT AS A CONDUCTOR!” she screamed at him, and that made the realization hit him as well. Noctis had a few words with Prompto before rushing off head of them and standing right in front of the Iron Giant.

Ciel was praying that the deamon would hold this sword up and not take a wide swing with it. And it would seem like the Astral’s were on their side, once that sword was pointed towards the sky, she snapped her fingers once again, focusing on the sword, making the lightning strike. The sound that Iron Giant made was bone chilling but watching it disappear and they were alone with no more deamons, they started cheering.

“Did you see that!?” Prompto asked, walking over, high-fiving Ciel. “That was smart, very Ignis like, but very you,”

Ciel bowed, looking over to Noctis, who was making his way over, giving him a thumbs up, while getting on in return. “Ignis would have had my ass if he was here and I didn’t remember that,” she said, laughing, but a sound caught her ears, and she saw fire. “NOCTIS!”

A red hand came from nowhere, the back side of it connecting with Noctis’ body and flinging him into the rock wall on the side of the road. A sword ablaze and attention upon Noctis’ weak body, a Red Giant was among them. Maybe Ifrit was playing the role of asshole right now and bringing their luck to an end with the odd time a Red Giant does appear after an Iron Giant.

The next events were pretty much a mess. Ciel was screaming at Prompto to get service and call Ignis and Gladio as she was rushing towards the flaming sword that was on a mission to take Noctis’ life. Managing to side check the sword from the Giant, though having to follow through with it, causing serious injuries to herself, it was enough time for Noctis to get back on his feet and head back towards Prompto. The Red Giant had picked up it’s sword again, but his attention wasn’t on Noctis or Prompto, it was on her.

Ciel stood there, holding onto her shoulder, seeing that her hoodie was burnt and the smell of burnt flesh was there, a smell that wasn’t pleasant at all, but she didn’t have much of a choice. The Giant lumbered towards her, it’s hulking form towering above her much smaller form, she didn’t have much else to do, she couldn’t think of anything. Summoning up the last bit of magic that she did have, she held her hand up, ready to send out whatever she had of ice magic at the thing, but her fingers wrapped around cool metal. Breaking her gaze upon the Red Giant, she saw that she held a double sided axe. Bringing her hand from her arm, she wrapped her other hand around the extended handle and she brought it in for a closer look.

Ciel actually managed to summon a weapon, one that suited her in more ways than one. It wasn’t too heavy, but it wasn’t light either, the blades were long, but they sharp and they held power within them. It was made completely out of silver and she feel in love with the weapon. Her steel blue eyes held a determined light, she looked towards the Red Giant and smirk, getting into stance.

“It’s showtime~”


	8. Chapter Eight - Knocking on Death's Door

The sound of someone’s phone going off, awoke the Adviser from his slumber. Honestly, what could possibly be going on that someone needed them at three in the morning? His Uncle said that he had things covered at the the Citadel until he got back, but there could be an emergency that they needed to attend to once the sun arose, but now that he was looking at his phone, he realized that it was his own phone that was going off… And it was from Prompto? Wasn’t the boy in the next room with the Prince and Ciel?

“Ignis, fucking answer it or ignore it,” Gladio grumbled from his bed, clearly annoyed that he was getting woken up so early.

Ignis sat up, answering the phone. “Prompto what is so important?” he asked, before there were many sounds and clearly the blonde was not listening currently, and none of that sounded like a hotel room. “WHERE ARE YOU!?”

Ignis was out of bed, and turning on a light, Gladio was now sitting up, looking ready to kill somebody, but seeing the look upon Ignis’ face went against it and got out of bed as well. Ignis was pulling on a pair of shoes, and ripping the door open before he started off his way towards the room next door. Opening said hotel room, lights were on, and there was no Prince, no Prompto, and no Ciel. Nobody was in the room, and it was obvious that they took another way to get out of here. Which was the balcony. Ignis wasn’t stupid.

“Prompto. Where are you?” Ignis asked, getting to a point that he wanted answered, and he was going to be getting them now.

“I-Ignis… We need help…” The blonde replied at last, but the background sound told that they weren’t dealing with people. “There’s a Red Giant-”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE THE CITY AT NIGHT!?” Ignis finally blew up, turning around to face Gladio, who wore the same look that Ignis wore.

There was struggle for ownership of the phone on the other end before Noctis’ voice was heard to Ignis. “Now is not the time to freaking out, get Gladio up, and get your asses here now,” the Prince said, the tone he took kind of shook Ignis, the anger fading away as soon as it arrived. “I don’t know how much longer Ciel is going to hold back this Giant, even if she finally summoned a weapon.”

Ignis’ heart had stopped, Ciel was taking on a Red Giant alone, and looking to Gladio, he wasn’t sure if Gladio could even do that on his own, shoved past the Shield, he went back to their room, grabbing his wallet and started to make leave for the road, ready to rent some Chocobo’s since Ignis had a feeling that Noctis managed to get keys to the car and is currently with the car.

“Noctis, where are you?” Ignis asked, placing his phone on speaker so Gladio could hear what was going on, and probably not at the right moment either with the scream that was heard from the other side, and it wasn’t Prompto’s or Noctis’.

“O-On the way to Old Lestallum… Ignis, hurry… This isn’t going well,” Noctis said, his voice heavily shaken with what had happened moments ago that had probably caused the scream. The line went dead, either from Noctis ending the call or Prompto’s phone had died.

Ignis looked to Gladio, who had fallen into some form of silence. For once, the Adviser couldn’t read what was going through the Shield’s head at that moment. Ignis kept his mouth shut as well, not wishing for the Shield to blow up either. The two of them head left, and were already going down towards the road that would take them to where they needed to be. Ignis went to the Rent-A-Chocobo post and quickly rented two chocobo’s for a day. Easily enough, they arrived in a short amount of time, thanks to whatever they did to get the chocobo’s here. Once that was dealt with, the two were off down the road, lights on high and alert.

Gladio was on edge. He knew that Ciel wasn’t one to take things lightly, and she probably didn’t think that whatever was currently happening to them was going to happen. Yet knowing them, they would have left without her and that wouldn’t be any good either, so in a way, Gladio was glad that she caved in and went, at least hearing that Noctis was okay was a good sign… But whatever was happening to Ciel right now was worrying him more and more.

The sound of battle had begun to reach their ears, along with the red light of fire from a distance. This made Gladio push his chocobo to speed up. That was a high sign of a Red Giant. When they arrived, Ignis and himself jumped from their chocobo’s and saw Noctis and Prompto by the car, Ciel nowhere in sight.

“What is she?!” Gladio called out, scaring the two younger boy’s from where they were and looked to the two that had finally arrived, both of their mouths flapping like fish without water. “WHERE IS CIEL?”

Prompto pointed towards the figure running towards the deamon, her speed easily stood out. She had no weapon, she was seriously hurt and fighting against the darkness that had been there for awhile. Gladio was about to go and help her, but when that Red Giant swung his sword at her, Gladio’s entire world seemed to have stopped around him. Ciel dodged, and took this chance to jump onto the sword, just as the deamon was swinging it back up. Using the force from the swing, she jumped, giving her that air she needed to before she was going right now at it’s head, an axe appearing within her hands, as she brought it down, finishing the Red Giant for good.

Ciel landed upon the ground, her axe disappearing from her hands, as she stood there for a few moments. The four of them stayed where they were, not sure what to do. Was she really okay? Or was she already pass ‘too far’ and kind of just on instinct right now? Though she turned around, showing the wounds, all the burns, and all the blood that painted her skin. Though she had a very Ciel expression on her face; a smile that was wide and true.

“Hey, I took down a Red Giant by myself! And I summoned a weapon too!” She called out, waving a hand up high, directed towards Ignis and Gladio, seeing that they had arrived. She took a single step forward, and Gladio saw that light leave from her eyes as she started to fall forward, and that was what kicked started his sprint.

He was ahead of them, which was very shocking, and he was at Ciel’s side in seconds, lifting her up into his arms. She still looked happy even now, how? He would never know. She was always a mystery to him, and he had some many things he still wanted to say to her. He wanted to apologize to her for being such an ass. He wanted things to go back to how they were. Gladio wanted it all back. Ignis began fussing over her, and Gladio was only focused upon her.

 

\-------------------------------------

 

Ah, there was the little girl again, rushing up the stone walkway to the door, her mother following closely behind her. The girl carried that behemoth plushie that he had given her the day she was born. She was very attached to it, and Gladio was grateful.

“ _Gladdy! I am happy to see you again!_ ” Four year old Ciel said, as she bound up the steps, almost falling back down them, if it hadn’t been for Gladio to grab her and pull her back up. “ _Thank you~!_ ”

“ _You need to be more careful, you tend to do this every time when you come over,_ ” Gladio said, smiling warmly at the girl before him.

Evelyka walked up the steps, as well, standing behind her daughter, smiling down at the eight year old. “ _She’s growing still, Gladio, so she’s going to be rather clumsy for the next few months at least,_ ” she said, patting the boy on the shoulder. “ _Keep a good eye on her, we’ll be out late tonight, this meeting is very important, so, make sure she’s in bed before midnight,_ ”

“ _I will, Evelyka,_ ” Gladio said, taking Ciel’s hand, and leading the girl inside, though she was waving to her mother, and stumbling over her feet.

The two children jumped right into playing once they settled into Gladio’s room, Jared was going around the house, keeping things clean and straightening up after Clarus was rushing around after getting the call about this evening meeting that was important. Yes, it was a last minute thing, but it wasn’t anything that the council couldn’t deal with up at the Citadel. Even Ignis and Noctis arrived not long after Ciel had been dropped off. The four children played together, running around in the backyard, smiles wide. Noctis was an evil King that wanted Ciel, the Princess that could grant him any wish. Ignis was Noctis’ Adviser, very much how he was going to be in real life. Gladio was obviously Ciel’s Knight, there to rescue her from Noctis’ evil clutches… Or he would have if she hadn't fallen backwards off the slide and broke her arm.

All four children found them in the infirmary at the Citadel, letting Crowe look over Ciel’s arm after the fall. Noctis was feeling guilty and stood on the other side of the room, Ignis was trying his best to calm the Prince’s fears, and Gladio was right at Ciel’s side, cup of water in hand and ready to get whatever she need if asked of him. “ _Well, you broke it, it's going to need to be put into a cast… I would use magic but it's too broken to do so without some serious troubles later on in life,_ ” Crowe said, getting off the stool she was sitting upon and beginning to gather what she needed to make the cast and set Ciel’s arm back into place.

“ _I should have been more careful and kept you from the slide, and I told your mother that I would take care of you,_ ” Gladio said, his face turning into a rather sad one. He was frustrated with himself. He was going to be Noctis’ Shield when he was of age and he couldn't simply protect Ciel from breaking her arm, and she didn't even cry, which only caused Gladio to worry more.

Ciel reached out with her good arm and patted Gladio’s leg, smiling up at the older boy. “ _It’s alright, Gladdy! It hurts but with you around, it doesn't hurt as much! You almost had me too!_ ” Ciel said, still smiling even with the damaged that her arm went through today. “ _So, don’t worry about it, it was an accident!_ ”

Gladio looked at the four year old, giving her a weak smile as she was smiling so brightly at him. He didn’t know what he did to deserve this kindness since he was so hard on Noctis at times, or even Ignis, but Ciel was always there, helping Gladio out. And the eight year old knew that he didn’t want to do anything that could possibly mess this friendship up and if he does, how was he going to fix it? And would Ciel forgive him this easily in the future.

“ _Just promise me that, that if I do something in the future that doesn’t have me take care of you, promise me you wouldn’t forgive me this easily,_ ” Gladio said, picking the four year old up and holding her close. Ciel was worried by those words, but she hugged Gladio back.

“... _Okay, I promise, but you gotta promise me that you better have a pretty good reason as to why you wouldn’t be taking care for me,_ ” she said, letting out a small yawn, indicating that she was growing tired as well.

“ _I promise._ ”

 

\--------------------------------------

 

Gladio sat beside her bed. They made it back to Lestallum with Ciel mumbling in Gladio’s arms for the most of the way back. Luckily a doctor was on call, stabilizing Ciel from her hotel room, but they needed more medical help… And the Astral’s graced them with the Glaive arriving early. Crowe did everything that she could with the doctor’s help and now all they could do was wait on Evelyka to arrive. Gladio looked at the pale face in the bed, she looked like an angel to him, now with the blood washed away and her burn hidden under bandages. In his entire life, he thought her being sent to the hospital was bad, or about a month ago after her attack, but this, this shook him to the core.

“Gladio, you should get some sleep, I’ll watch over her,” a voice came from the door. Nyx walked into the room, closing the door behind him and going to the Shield's side.

“I have to be here,” Gladio said, his voice firm, but heavy to say the least. “...I can’t lose her,”

Nyx sighed, resting a hand upon Gladio’s shoulder. “Yeah, I know, but she’ll have your ass if you don’t rest,” he reminded him, only for Gladio’s entire body go rigid under Nyx’s hand. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Why would she even care about me after all that I put her thought?” Gladio asked, his face falling into his hands. He was heavily put off by all of this. He was the one at fault. And over these last few months, she’s been the one paying for it. “How can she not hate me after all of this?”

“Because she still cares about you,”

Both Gladio and Nyx jumped out of their skin at Cor suddenly being there, he wasn’t meant to be here until tomorrow, along with Evelyka, yet it seems plans have changed once again. “If you’re wondering Evelyka is, she’s in her room sleeping… She’s really worried,” Cor informed them, joining in as well. “Ignis said that the injuries weren’t that bad,”

Gladio sat much straighter, and was much more tense with Cor in the room. “How do you even know that? You don’t hang out with her everyday!” Gladio stated, the stress in his voice very strong and he was only growing more upset with each thought that crossed his mind.

“But I do know her fears, and I know she’s afraid that you’ll stop caring,” Cor said, earning a look from Gladio, Nyx was even curious. “You remember the attack, Nyx had gone to work when I came to watch her… She had woken up and asked me if you stopped caring about her.”

Gladio’s entire body held itself differently. Nyx never seen Gladio looked so distress than he did now, and it was a clear sign to what was going on now. “You started to gain feelings for her,” Nyx stated, connecting the pieces together. “You distance yourself to try and stop it. You tried anything to get the feelings to stop…”

The room became too silent. Cor wasn’t surprised by the change in feelings, Cor was the very same way with Ciel’s mother and still had feelings for the woman, but he didn’t wish to ruin what they had. “It’s scary, I know, but take it from me, don’t push her away,” he said, deciding it was the right time to leave, not wishing to share that secret just yet.

Nyx was taken back by the fact that the Marshal admitted such things. And so casually too. The Glaive took a look at the Shield and saw him staring lovingly at Ciel. “You know, I agree with the Marshal on this one,” he said, patting Gladio’s shoulder. “Take the chance and waltz right into her heart and camp there.”

Gladio looked at Nyx, clearly unimpressed by where the attention had gotten turned to. “Do you seriously think she wouldn’t notice me flirting?” he asked, knowing that Ciel; was no where close to being dumb.

“Ignis has been flirting with her since the summer began, she still hasn’t clued in,” Nyx pointed out, remembering how the Prince’s Adviser kept coming to the Glaive for relationship advice. “I am pretty sure that she’s romantically clueless.”

Gladio now held a very confused expression upon his face, Nyx shrugged his shoulders, patting Gladio’s shoulder once again and leaving the room himself. If Gladio only knew that they all had been making attempts to form a relationship with Ciel since she went from cute to beautiful. It was the way of life, and how men were. But Gladio needed to get out of his head that Ciel would go after anyone else but him.

It now had been four days since the incident. Regis had arrived and took it upon himself to keep Ignis, Noctis, and Prompto out of the Leville. Cor was keep Evelyka from bed hovering her daughter, yet that was what Gladio was exactly doing. Though nobody was getting in the way of him. Every check up had been coming up good. Ciel was recovering, and it was possibly going to be soon that she woke up, and Gladio was going to be there when she does.

Nyx was kind enough to come visit Gladio with food and catch up about the day, keeping the Shield in the loop of things. Gladio would share some of the check up results, letting at least Nyx know that none of her previous injuries were causing harm still. Sometimes Nyx would talk Gladio into the nearby cafe for some food, letting Evelya some time with Ciel.

Relaxing more into the couch with a book in hand. It’s been a long time since he had a chance to enjoy a book and not take a month to read. Oddly enough, Gladio was reading out-loud, thinking that Ciel could hear what he was saying. Yes, she was in a coma, but apparently people could hear still when in a coma. He was nervous that she heard everything from the night of the incident. Hopefully, she didn’t. He was going to have a lot of work to do to win back Ciel’s trust, but he was determined to do it.

“ _...The prince rode up on his horse, looking down upon his Knight and the young lady with amused eyes. The Knight knew that he was caught, and he was sure that he was going to get a lecture of a lifetime, because-_ ” Gladio read outloud, only for a weaker voice across the room to cut in.

“ _-he could not give his life to his charge, since he had found his other half. His life was now her’s._ ”

Gladio’s gaze had fallen towards the bed, deeply surprised that the voice came from the person that couldn’t be awake right now. Yet, there Ciel was. Her blue eyes gazed upon him with the faint lines of an amused smile on her lips.

“ _This is the fiftieth time you’ve read that book now?_ ” she asked, trying to pull herself up into a sitting position.

Gladio rushed to her side, book forgotten about on the floor. Though it seemed like Gladio was on the floor. Pulling himself up, he found that he was back by the couch, book on the coffee table and Ciel still deep within her coma. He moved himself back upon the couch, noticing that it was late at night and there was now food on the coffee table as well. Gladio was very low on sleep, afraid something would happen to her if he looked away. Evelyka tried getting him into a proper bed, but he wouldn’t do it. Even his father attempted and Iris. Apparently, at least according to Nyx, someone tried getting King Regis to try to talk Gladio into getting red, but he was kind enough to decline doing such a thing since he knew what Gladio was up to.

Gladio felt like shit. If he… If he didn’t… He had haunting thoughts of possible outcomes. He could lose her completely. He got up, going to the chair next to her bed, brushing some hair from her face. She looked better to when they had found her. She was going to be fine. Gladio couldn’t be thinking of negative things. Not now. She was stronger than that-

Sobbing finally shook him from his thoughts. He thought that it was him at first, but he realized that his body was feeling relief from the sound of someone sobbing. And it was right next to him. Gladio looked up towards the bed, and blue eyes were shining brightly with tears that were falling down upon the face. Thick streaks were upon her face as she sobbed, looking at Gladio. Her voice was rough but she wouldn’t stop crying.

Ciel was awake. She was looking at Gladio and sobbing. There was relief in her gaze as she just sobbed, looking at Gladio. She was moving now, sitting up more and her hand reaching out towards him. Glaido moved himself to the edge of the bed, and taking ahold of her hand, which only caused her to sob harder than she had previously Gladio didn’t know what was going on, but he did the first thing that came to mind when Iris would be having nightmares. He leaned over her and kissed her head softly, and the response was her hugging him tightly to her.

“G-Gladdy! I-I thought… I-I thought I-I didn’t ma-make it!” she sobbed into his chest, her voice so strained through her sobbing. Her grip even tightened around him. Ciel was terrified. She had been terrified this entire. Probably since she blacked out.

Gladio just held onto her. He couldn’t just up and leave her like this. She needed to be checked out though, but if she was gripping this tightly, then she was fine, right? He had basic first aid but she was in a serious condition before. She literally had fallen into a Coma, which surprisingly didn’t mess up her memories as the doctor had suggested. Gladio was just going to be grateful that the Astral’s didn't do that, he was thankful that Ciel was in one piece and was at least functioning like any person would be after something scary like that.

“You have every right to be scared…” he said, brushing her hair back out of her face, not wanting her to choke on it. He was going to need to help her shower later at least. “...I need to apologize,”

Ciel sobs came to a choking stop as she pulled herself from Gladio’s chest and looked up at him, her eyes very red from the crying, and very confused. “W-Why?” she stuttered out, her voice still a bit shaky after all the crying and the days of not talking. “I went out with Prompto and Noctis… I tried to talk them out of it but it didn’t work, and you’re apologizing for nothing?”

Gladio shook his head, pulling Ciel’s head back to his chest, feeling his eyes start to burn. “I’ve been treating you like shit lately, if I hadn’t gotten this stupid idea in my head that I needed to distance myself from you,” he said, closing his eyes tightly, trying to keep the tears back. He needed to be strong for her. After what she did, she needed him to be strong. “If I hadn’t distant myself from you, you wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped and hurt that time… You wouldn’t be questioning if I still care about you… You wouldn’t have had to fight a Red Giant on your own. You wouldn’t have to worry about being Noctis’ shield that night… Because I want you to stay away from me since I am no good for you,”

Ciel’s eyes widened at the confession. HE thought that HE wasn’t good enough for her? “How is that even possible?” she asked, her voice growing soft with confusion. “I thought I wasn’t good enough for you…”

“I’ve known you since birth, and I didn’t want to hold you back, I didn’t want to be the reason why you got tied down,” Gladio said, his voice cracking, and he could stop the tears from falling then. He felt so guilty, he wouldn’t have been able to tell her any of this. Gladio started crying now, because everything was finally spilled out. Well, at least most of it.

Ciel tightened her grip even more, and started to cry once again as well. It didn’t matter if they should most likely call for a doctor or at least her mother, but that didn’t matter. Things were fixed. At least they felt like they were. Maybe she wasn’t reading the mood properly, but everything felt right now. All that mattered was that she had Gladio back in her life now. And for good this time.


	9. Chapter Nine - Admitting Confessions

Spring Break was over. Ciel was lucky enough to get to enjoy the last few days before heading back to Insomnia. The entire car ride back, Prompto had taken the passenger seat and Ciel was sandwich between Gladio and Noctis. The Prince was napping away like he usually did, letting Gladio and Ciel chat it up in the back about pretty much everything. She even went to the Amicitia Manor that night for dinner. Sharing stories and making memories around the table. Now that they were back at school, they were back into classes and Ciel was getting a new training course set up for her.

“ _How does it feel to have Gladio back in your company?_ ” Noctis asked at lunch on the first day back, fooling around with his sandwich.

Ciel was munching on her lunch, and she looked up to the Prince and grinned. “ _It feels pretty great, everything is pretty much normal, a few kinks here and there but nothing we can’t overcome with time and talking,_ ” she said, grinning at her two best friends. “ _I’m glad we got to go to the Chocobo Post on the way home, your Dad literally had it all planned out,_ ”

Noctis laughed, nodding his head. “ _Yeah, that’s Dad, he knew that you guys liked Chocobo and like come on, when was the last time we went to the Chocobo Post?_ ” he pointed out, making a good point.

Prompto plopped himself in his seat, finally back from the Staff Office after getting called there unexpectedly at the beginning the period and had gotten back until now. Ciel and Noctis brought their seats over and looked at their friend curiously. “ _So, the school wishes to have an interview with my parents…_ ” he said, bringing up what happened in the office during this entire period.

“ _Aren’t your parents either working or out of town?_ ” Ciel asked, wondering how that was even going to be possible.

“ _Exactly, I told the school that many times, and your mother is my emergency contact, but it has to be my parents,_ ” Prompto said, slumping in his seat, looking defeated. “ _I got told that I have to try and contact them now and tell them, and I pretty much said that I would try, but I can’t promise that they will came, or that I’ll get any word back from them right away._ ”

“ _And their response?_ ” Noctis asked, kind of expecting the worst, much like Ciel was.

“ _...I might get expelled,_ ” Prompto said, sighing, even more defeated than before.

Ciel’s face twisted with imaginable anger at the thought of this school system and dealing with issues, especially ones like this. Noctis rested a hand upon her shoulder, to keep from getting up and marching out to the Staff Office to give them a piece of her mind. Noctis knew how she was feeling, he was filling with rage as well, but he was not going to let it show. At least not yet.

“ _Prom, I can talk to my father about it if you want,_ ” Noctis said, looking to his best friend, giving him at least an option to deal with this.

Prompto looked at his friends. Both of which had rather high ranks within society, but he couldn’t let them give him a free pass every time something came up. So, the blonde shook his head. “ _No, please, don’t, as much as I would love a quick end to all of this, I have to deal with this myself,_ ” he said, looking at the two of them, and smiling. “ _It’s going to suck, and I only have a week, but I have to try at least, right?_ ”

Ciel’s face fell, and she looked at the desk. They had just gotten back from Spring Break, and more drama was starting up once again. This wasn’t fair. What did Prompto ever do to be treated like this? He’s been nothing but a good student, and yeah, he might be friends with Noctis and her, but they like Prompto for himself. He’s not using them. He’s a true friend. Unlike the rest of their classmates. Could nothing go right for them for once? Was that too much to ask of the Astrals?

 

“...And that was that, we didn’t talk about it anymore, because Prompto was already stressing out enough as it was,” Ciel said, kicking at Gladio and getting him in the side and causing him to stagger a little bit from the blow. “Like, that is a stupid reason for a school to kick out a student, because his parents haven’t shown up to any kind of parent-teacher interview once!”

Gladio threw a punch at Ciel and she blocked it, sliding a little on the mat from the force, but she stood strong, and grabbed at his arm and easily flipped him over her body and pinned him to the ground with no troubles at all. Gladio tapped and they got to their feet again and decided a break was a good idea right now.

“I don’t know what to tell you, if Prompto doesn’t want you guys involved, then don’t try anything, “ Gladio advised, just giving her the obvious fact, but it was literally a pretty solid point.

Ciel sighed, fooling with her towel. “But it still doesn’t make it right,” she said, her face a little rubbed down with the obvious fact.

Gladio laughed, shaking his head at the younger female. “You and your sense of justice,” he said, lightly punching her shoulder and rewarding him with a glare from her. “So, what are you planning to do after this?”

“After training? I told Ignis I would meet up with him and go get things for supper before heading back to Noctis’ apartment for the night,” Ciel said, looking at Gladio, actually really casual about staying the night at Noctis’ apartment, but then again, it was a normal thing, but normally Prompto was over to.

“But it’s a school night,” Gladio said, rather confused. She only really slept over there on the weekend.

“Haven’t you heard, my apartment building is getting renovations done, and they don’t want tenants staying because health and safety risk,” she said, taking a sip from her water bottle, and smiling at Gladio warmly. “I’ve been there for like almost a week now,”

Gladio just stared at her, now feeling really out of the loop. When they had gotten back to Insomnia, Gladio was doing a lot of catching up in Ciel’s life, as she was catching up a lot in Gladio’s life. It was a long process, but they were getting through it, because training really help, and the occasional morning runs. “First time of me hearing it,” he said, grumbling a little bit because nobody had told him.

Ciel shrugged. “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning, since well, Ignis usually tells you everything, but then again, I am one of Noctis’ Guards, so I guess it’s nothing unnatural,” she said, placing her bottle down and going for her phone real quick to check her messages, seeing that on snapchat that she had gotten more snaps of Prompto at the range again. “I feel like we should try and start feeding Prompto the idea that he could get some Crownguard training and join our little regime.”

Gladio looked up at Ciel, having taken a seat on the bench, and gave a questioning look. “Um, what gives you this idea?” he asked, before Ciel had thrusted her phone in his face and showed a video of Prompto shooting at targets and getting a bullseye each time. “...Has he always been good at this?”

Ciel nodded her head, bringing her phone back and typing a reply to Prompto. “Yeah, I took him to the range back in middle school when I was working on my aim, and Prompto has natural talent… Kind of tried talking him into it, and he says that it’s no place for him to be by our sides because he doesn’t have the training like we do,” she said, taking a seat next to Gladio, and resting her head against the wall. “I want to give him some form of confidence, something he can be proud in beside his photograph skills that he’s worked so hard on,”

Gladio watched her, she always had a big heart, always caring. Something she picked up from her mother. It didn’t matter the age of the person, she would mother anyone she wanted if she felt like they needed it. She was getting more mature with each passing day. And to think that one day, Gladio wouldn’t be her Knight anymore. It was a sour feeling that was left in him with the thought, but it might as well be true.

Ciel looked over to Gladio, and only to meet his gaze. Something was obviously on his mind. She wasn’t going to press him about it, he would share if she wanted to. It was weird, now that they were talking again. She was jealous, very jealous that Gladio was other girls, was being an adult. But that was because Gladio was always there with her, and always with her. Now though, she was beginning to realize, that wouldn’t always be the case anymore. He was growing up, and as was she. He had a family name to uphold, and heirs to be made for the future King or Queen of Lucis. He needed to start looking for a wife, since Noctis would be doing the same in the next few years as well… Along with Ignis and herself. She kept forgetting that she had a duty to uphold, along with them all. Prompto was the only normal one out of them. This had already been changing since before the school year, but with the recent drama, Ciel was just accepting facts that she never wanted to look at until now. And it was hitting her pretty hard.

The rest of their training was with small talk, and getting advice from Gladio about what she was doing wrong, until finally, she was let go and Ciel started to make her way over to Noctis’ apartment for the night. She looked at the wall that was surrounding them, and she wondered what the old wall must have been like. Cor always said that it was something that was out of this world, and it could not be explained by with just words. The new wall had finished being built when she and Noctis were born, and Gladio said he could mildly recall it but even then, the memory was hazy… She wondered if she would eventually just be a hazy memory for Gladio when they got older. Very much like the old wall was to him as well.

A horn caught her attention and she looked over to see Ignis in Noctis’ car, looking up at her as he stopped next to her. “You left without saying anything and you also forgot to text me,” Ignis said, smiling up at her, and she just felt her face fell.

“Sorry, Ignis, I just got caught up in my thoughts,” she said, quickly slipping into the passenger seat, stretching her arms out a little bit. “Just so much is still happening, even after we return home, whatever is happening to Prompto, it’s just not right,”

“Ah, yes, Noctis, has informed me of Prompto’s situation,” Ignis said, entered back in with traffic, being he careful that he didn’t cut anyone off. The two of them sat in the car together, heading back towards the apartment, and the rain only seemed to be getting heavier at this point as well. “And I know both you and Noctis wish to-”

“-Help, but it’s not your right to go against your friend’s word and meddle in something that does not concern you. In short terms, do not abuse your status,” Ciel cut in finishing pretty much exactly what Ignis was going to say, she knew the adviser way too well. “Is that what you were going to say?”

Ignis chuckled, glancing at Ciel. “You took the words right out of my mouth,” he said, focusing his attention back onto the road, actually slowing down due to the rain. “How has your stay at the apartment been so far? I know it’s a very different feeling for you and it’s been awhile already, but I felt the need to hold off for a while,”

Ciel was watching the rain fall down the glass of the window, thinking about it. Ignis wasn’t wrong, it was a huge change, especially with Ignis literally showing up every morning to cook them food, even going as far as to wake them up. It was personally strange to have someone cook food for her that wasn’t her mother, in the mornings at least, she was use to having Ignis cook dinner when she came over, but other than that, it was very different to have somebody cook her pretty much three solid meals while she lived with her best friend for a little bit. The bathroom situation was a blessing. There was a common area bathroom, the guest bedroom had a bathroom and Noctis’ room had a bathroom, so Ciel did not have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night and risk getting caught in just a t-shirt and underwear. Let’s not forget getting driven or picked up from school was strange too, it was normal since Ignis always drove Ciel to the Citadel after school most days since Noctis also had training, but it was before her, and she normally walked home after, or got a ride from her mother or Cor. But every single day now? It kind of was throwing her off. She tried to help Ignis with maintaining the apartment since she started staying there, but he wouldn’t allow it, going on about how she was a guest and that she didn’t need to do anything. She remembers when she went out for supper with her mother once night and Ignis literally picked her up right after when she said that she was on her way back soon. Of course, leave it to Evelyka to make a comment that Ignis had to be smitten with her now, but Ignis simply implied that it would save Evelyka gas.

“It’s nice, I feel a bit out of my element since somebody wouldn’t let me help out or really do anything, but I guess I cannot take that away from you,” Ciel said, looking over at Ignis with a smile. Her mother always taught her to be honest, do not lie. But than again, she was also not meant to break a gift either, and keep her mouth shit. “But, I respect whatever you wish,”

“I should also being respecting your help, but I haven’t since I do not wish to bother you,” he said, finally pulling up to the apartment, though normally they would go to the parkcad and head up together. Ciel looked to Ignis, her eyes filled with confusion. “Head on up first, Prompto is up there with the Prince,”

Ciel nodded her head, stepping out of the car, and rushing inside without as much as a second thought, eyes following after her from the very car that she had been in moments ago. Ignis had developed a crush upon her, but he knew that he could never win her over. Ciel’s heart belonged to Gladio, even though she did not know it yet, or even knew about how she held the Shield’s own heart in her hand as well, along with the Prince’s. She’s naive, but she’s still growing, and she’ll eventually find out, being forced to choose, but Ignis knows he will be with her when she needs that person to help her make the choice. Ignis rather be a friend than someone that was trying to win her over, and to him, friendship was better than having regrets.

 

\---------------------------------

 

The whole week was completely stressful, Noctis and Ciel were worried about Prompto, who was attempting every form of contact with his parents, mainly because the school was really slamming down on him about not knowing what his parents looked like. Ignis managed to wrangle some information for the two that the school is just concern that Prompto was being cared for properly and stuff like that. It was fair, but threatening to expel a student over something like that was beyond their power, and Prompto didn’t know how he felt about it, very attacked obviously. He still asked for them to not involve themselves in this case, he was getting plans ready for transferring schools.

Though the day of the meeting, Prompto was shocked to see his friends standing there, along with Ignis and Gladio. Ignis and Gladio were dressed in their official uniforms when for business, even Noctis was in a suit, as Ciel was pretty much wearing the exact same thing as Gladio. Prompto came to learn pretty quickly that this wasn’t the first time that the school has done something like this, and that this wasn’t just because of parents either. It was about their image, and certain students shouldn’t be here even if they passed everything. So, when Prompto walked into the office, alone at first, there was was words thrown by the headmaster, before Noctis made his appearance with letter in hand, with Ciel, Gladio and Ignis following him, the headmaster actually had the courage to make a run for it. Gladio easily caught him, and walking out of the office, many of the Crownguard were talking teachers out of their classroom. School ended up being canceled until they could find replacements, but online courses were mandatory for everyone.

Ciel parted ways from the guys, saying that her mother wanted to spend time with her, and they went their ways. The guys going to Noctis’ apartment and  as Ciel went to the Citadel to see her mother. The guys immediately changed their clothing and started to spend their time together, a full guy's night that neither of them have had in awhile since none of them really had the heart to ask Ciel to stay home, or have plans for something else.

The boys sat in the living room, letting Noctis and Prompto play whatever video game they were playing as Ignis and Gladio sat back with a drink wasn’t the boys scream and yell at the screen. Today was a long one, but it was one that had a good ending to it at least. All the boys seemed to have mellowed out after parting ways from Ciel. It was kind of weird, and Gladio was actually curious. “So, Ignis, how’s your flirting with Ciel going?” he casually brought up, causing the poor adviser to choke, but it also brought the attention of the two teenagers from the couch, who paused their game and eyed Gladio. “What?”

“Okay, Iggy does not even flirt with Ciel,” Noctis pointed out, only seeming to raise many questions for all the boys around him. “What’s the looks for?”

“Just because I don’t openingly flirt with her out in the open with you all around, does not mean  I do not express my attractions,” Ignis stated, going back to drinking, not making eye-contact with any of them. Gladio already knew about Ignis’ attraction for Ciel since Spring Break, but actually didn’t know if he still held them or not.

“Oh, looks like the Prince as competition,” Prompto taunted to the raven-haired Prince that elbowed his best friend, earning the surprised expressions of Gladio and Ignis. “Wait, you two didn’t know about Noctis’ crush on Ciel? This has been going on since middle school,”

Ignis set his drink down on the island table between them and the boys on the couch, looking at Noctis. “Is that why you jumped on with having her stay here with you?” he questioned, catching the Prince red-handed in his plan to have Ciel to himself to woo. “When were you going to tell any of this to us?”

Noctis shrugged his shoulders, literally keeping his head down from any of their eyes, clearly embarrassed that he was caught red-handed in his little plan. “I didn’t think it was any of your guys’ business in who I liked and who I wanted to date,” he said, finally looking up, looking much more like the Prince that he was known to be. “Though, I’m starting to believe that she had unknowingly given her heart to another,”

The four males had fallen silent, and Gladio rubbed his neck, looking to Prompto, finding that the blonde hadn’t said anything about himself. “What about you, Prompto?” Gladio asked, crossing his arms over his chest, looking at him with a stern gaze.

Prompto shrugged his shoulders, leaning more into his arms that rested against the back of the couch. “I did for the first three months after school started, she had gotten pretty cute over the summer, but I knew I didn’t want to look into having a romantic relationship with her before I made any kind of move,” he explained, hopping over the couch and heading to the kitchen for another thing of soda. “What about you, Gladio? You haven’t said a single thing on the matter, and if I don’t know any better, I might be thinking you could possibly be trying to make a move upon the girl,”

Gladio turned his head over to the blonde and glared at him. He may act like he doesn’t catch onto anything, but it was all for face, he was pretty good with picking up on things. Gladio didn’t want to admit any of this to any of the boys. Noctis was watching Gladio closely exactly like Ignis, Prompto was keeping Gladio’s attention for the other two since their feelings were upon their face very obviously. All of them were thinking the same thing, but they weren’t going to sell out Ciel. Even though Noctis and Prompto kind of gotten word confirmation from Ciel days after Gladio’s accident, but not a hundred percent confirmation, maybe like ninety-five percent confirmation. Ignis kind of just always knew, and it was very obvious that Gladio did too, but didn’t call him out of it, he wasn’t the kind of person to push people’s lives along.

“I care for like a sister, I’ve known her since she was practically born,” Gladio said, taking a sip of his beer that he held in his hand. “I don’t want anything to happen to her, and I hated when we fight because I don’t want us to be like that, and I will admit I was a dick with thinking that it was my choice to put distance between us,”

“Really? You don’t think she’s beautiful?” Noctis questioned, finding it very hard to believe that Gladio was the only guy that wasn’t affected by Ciel’s growth over the years like the rest of them.

Gladio looked over to Noctis, the two of them having a stare down. Noctis wanted to hear those words come out of Gladio’s mouth, not for the sake of rubbing it in, but for the sake of knowing if he had competition that he needed to fight against, other than Ignis, because going against both his adviser and shield was going to prove to be a rather eventful task. “She did get… beautiful over the summer, but I’m not trying to make a move on her, it’s something that I believe to be mildly wrong,” Gladio said, admitting that Ciel had grown into a beautiful woman, but not voicing that he did very much indeed wanted to be with her. He just needed to lie about that for the time being, just for another two years. “We are both meant to protect you, and I am your personal shield, I cannot be falling in love with someone when my life is on call for the future King of Lucis.”

Gladio was thinking about status again, and not like a normal person. The boys could feel the tension in Gladio’s words. There was more to what he was saying, but neither of them were going to pressure the shield over it. They would let him have his little moment of peace, because that was all they could do for him. In a way, Gladio was right. He couldn’t simply fall in love with anyone, his best option would have to be arranged marriage because he only needed to produce a heir, or Iris could do that job and Gladio could leave a life of freedom and no risk. Prompto just wanted to be with a girl that like him for him, who accepted who he was in the past, along with who he will be in the future. Ignis wanted someone who had the same love for cooking as himself, and was passionate about whatever hobbies they had, big or small. Noctis wanted a girl who would treat him like a normal person whenever, and not feel pressured about how society saw them, to be determined to be at his side when she was pushed and beaten down, only to get back up to fight back. But for all three of them, Ciel was that girl all rolled into one, but her heart belonged to Gladio. Gladio, who was completely oblivious to the fact that that Ciel pretty much threw all her time out of the way for him after his accident, and when she wanted to talk to him. Gladio didn’t know the effect he had on her. Though it would seem that Ciel didn’t realize it either, maybe a little bit now, but it wasn’t completely opening the door for her.

They all had to see how the rest of the school year went before anyone decided to make any kind of move upon Ciel. And if things were okay, and she saw interest towards other guys, then maybe they would. They would have all summer to try and win her over.

 


	10. Chapter Ten - The Mage and The Shield Meet

The rest of the school year had picked up it’s pace until the last day. There was always something that they needed to do. Always studying. Prompto even agreed to go through the Crownsguard’s training this summer if he passed the test, which he totally did. Fast than any of the other recruits on the testing day. They all were rather proud of him, and started getting him mentally ready to be dealing with Cor and Clarus all summer, meaning that they had Prompto over a lot when they could get their parents to be home for one night, or just take him to the Citadel for lunch on the weekends. Ciel had finally gotten back to her apartment, they really changed the place out on the outside, but her apartment still looked very much the same as how she left it, and she was just happy to be home, she even spend like a good three weeks just going home without spending time with the guys outside of school and the Citadel. Though it seemed like even after that, she wasn’t hanging out with them that much either.

Ciel was actually beginning to realize that due to the lack of female friend’s, she was kind of getting restless with the guys since she really couldn’t talk about a lot of things with them. When the plans of what everyone was doing this summer came up, she just said that she might got travel outside the city for the summer, because she didn’t want to spend another summer in the city since there wasn’t much less that she could do at her age. So, that brought her to this moment, standing at the gates, with only a backpack and a few on hand gear that she didn’t need to reach into magic storage for. Prompto had left yesterday for the training, the only people seeing her off was her mother, Noctis, Ignis, Gladio and Nyx.  This was a huge change from what she was allowed to do, but Evelyka didn’t want to hold her daughter back, and she knew that Ciel was more than powerful enough to handle herself. Plus, Cor and Cid were out there if anything came up.

“Are you should you want to do this?” Evelyka asked, hugging her daughter once again, kind of worried about her.

Ciel nodded her head, hugging her mother still. “Just something tells me I need to do this,” she said, pulling away from her mother, and smiling warmly at her, before looking over her shoulder to the other four that were there waiting for her attention. “My question is if you four are going to be okay?”

Noctis shrugged, coming forward at last, and pulling Ciel into a hug. “I guess I just have to make due without my best friends being around, but I’ll live,” he said, finally letting her go, patting her shoulder, letting Ignis hug her as well.

“You can always call us if something comes up,” the adviser said, holding a little bit tighter than her own mother did earlier. “We will come to you if you call, so, do not try to put yourself into danger too often,”

Ciel laughed, shaking her hand, ending the hug with Ignis, looking up at the adviser. “I wouldn’t be trying to get into danger, it might just find me,” she said, smiling widely at him, before getting lifted up from behind by Nyx. “And what can I do for you, Hero?”

“I’m going to miss you, I was actually looking forward to night time movie showings that you would drag me to,” Nyx said, still hugging her from behind, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Are you positive this is the thing you want to do?”

Ciel wiggled herself away from Nyx, looking over her shoulder at him with a smirk. “I’ve never been more sure about something in my entire life, and I get to ride a chocobo for the summer, and whatever I want, like I am really looking forward to this,” she said, looking to the sky, thinking about it all. This was a huge step for her, and it seemed to be only going up from here. But wasn’t life always about going up?

Finally Gladio brought Ciel into a hug, letting the girl rest his head on his chest, where she felt safe. “I am not going to be the one to keep asking you if you are sure about this, all I am going to ask though is that you message us once you get to Hammerhead,” Gladio said, resting his cheek on her head, even though he was hunched over her body in what looked like to be in a painful way. Nobody really attempted to get in the way of those two, they let them hug it out before Ciel was the first to let go.

With a final kiss on the cheek from her mother, Ciel waved to her friends, jumping onto the back of a beautiful blue chocobo, and started off towards Hammerhead, her sights on Galdin by the end of the day, but she first needed to get to Hammerhead without getting attacked by anyone or anything.

Being on the road really gives you time to think. Literally there was miles between her and any living person, and nobody would question her silence or her words. Nobody knew her out her. Nobody would point out the little flaws about her. About how she felt towards people she hold dearly to her heart. Nobody knew anything about her life within the walls. She was free. Though, it really did let her mind wander to the things that have been bugging her for months now. Ciel could actually breathe.

Now, the question was, where to start? Well, probably with the obvious fact why she was spending her outside the city, away from her friends. It really didn’t effect her until now, but someone mentioned about having a girl’s weekend during the school year, and Ciel was going to ask the guys if they wanted to do something like that, but she froze up and fell silent. That was when the reality of not having any female friends hit her. She just felt really never felt the realization that she had literally no female friends, or females that she could trust with anything in her life. She was just a girl that was surrounded by males all the time, and attractive ones at that. No wonder why people didn’t like her without even knowing her, they were all jealous of the men that she literally hung around her entire life and knew all their dark secrets.

Though there was other reasons as well. Gladio had recently gotten himself a new girlfriend, and Iris just loved her and everyone was nice to her. Ciel was just really wary of this new person that kind waltzed into their lives. Deep down, she was threatened, but she didn’t voice it. If she doesn’t have anything nice to say, than she was not meant to speak what she felt, but her mother also to be as honest with your feelings as possible, yet with something like this, it was too rude to get between. It wasn’t her place to tell someone that they shouldn’t be in a relationship together because she felt threatened by someone knew.

Truthfully, she didn’t even know where she was going to start from once she was really out there in the world this summer. She could go pretty much anywhere she pleased. Now, her life was in her hands for once. With that in mind, she looked towards the sky, and gave a huge smile. She could feel it in her bones now, that this was going to be the most life changing Summer that she has had yet. As long as the Astrals were watching over her, nothing horrible to her would happen!  
  


Of course, her thoughts on the first day were positive, and she tried to keep up a clear mind after things started to go wrong by the second day. She had gotten to Galdin Quay pretty quickly after her pit stop in Hammerhead, and she got to enjoy some time swimming, eat some pretty good food at the resort. She even decided to stay at the Haven that night and camp. It was easier that way. The entire first day was peaceful, but the morning after, Ciel was greeted with a little company. There was just _Shieldshears’_ all around the Haven, making it actually impossible to get back to the resort for her Chocobo, but it would seem like the _Shieldshears_ ’ actually were taking over the entire beach, which wasn’t good at all. Summoning her axe in hand, she quickly began her assault on the beast, getting a nice workout that morning. She had to take down the _Mightyshear_ that apparently drew all the other _Shieldshears_ ’ here to the beach. Ciel’s reward for that was luckily free food for all the hunting that she did, followed by a couple of Gil that she gotten in return for dealing with the _Mightyshear._ She was just glad to help.

Ciel was back on the road by noon, heading out towards Lestallum, knowing that here was many other roads that she go down on. She actually just went straight for Lestallum, spending the day walking around, taking pictures to send to her friends, even going as far as picking up small gifts for them when she returned. She even went down to the view lot and looked over to where the Titan was currently slumbering, as the sun began to set. It had only been two days, but it felt like it has been longer. Maybe it was because she was alone and not with her friends, but she was okay with that. It was giving her room to grow as a person. Glancing back towards the Titan, she swore on her life in that moment that she saw the Giant move, or at least shift a little bit, but when than she was so focused on the pull that was wanting her to go over. Ciel decided to call it a night since she was pretty sure that she could possibly be just very over-heated due to the heat.

That night though, Ciel had a dream that woke her up, and the only problem was, she couldn’t remember any of the details clearly, but she had this feeling in the back of her head that those weren’t a dream, but someone’s memories. Not her memories… but they were her’s? It was hard to understand what any of it was about. Ciel didn’t even sleep after that, something was pulling at the back of her mind, trying to make her remember, but she couldn’t figure out what that even was.

The rest of the week was spent in Lestallum, always finding something to do. Eventually, she heading off back to Duscae, going down to the Chocobo Post to see if she could do anything around there. And this was where Ciel is currently, hiding in a small cave created by rocks thanks to whatever, hiding from the _Behemoth_ ; Deadeye. It was a mess that she was getting herself in, but at least she was trying her best to not let that thing get near the Chocobo Post like Wiz asked, yet now she was lost in this cave, and just wanted to get out of there. It was getting dark fast, and she had a light, but that wasn’t going to protect her from deamons. Ciel kept moving forward though, climbing over things, and pushing old wood supports out of her way. It was amazing that nothing has collapsed or Ciel would be seriously out of luck.

The sound of struggle was heard the deep she followed into the cave. Ciel hid herself behind a rock and saw _Goblin’s_ attacking a Moogle. She snuck out from there, easily summoning a set of daggers and threw them at a _Goblin_. It caught their attention and they were coming at her. Ciel had no problems handling the _Goblin’s_ on her own, at least she didn’t pull a Gladio and go with her axe. Finishing off the Goblin’s, she looked over to the Moogle, who was still around, just staring at her, confusing Ciel, and making her feel slightly creeped out and highly confused.

“Sofiel?” the Moogle asked, making the back of Ciel’s head throb at the name.

Ciel shook her head slowly, giving the Moogle an even confused look than she had previously. Who was Sofiel? Why was it making Ciel’s body think it was a trigger, but with no words, she shook her head. The Moogle continued to stare at Ciel, before flying over to her, giving her a once over. This made her kind of uncomfortable. “Who are you, Kupo?” The Moogle questioned, eyeing her.

“I’m Ciel Gavin… Did you get trapped in here as well?” She asked, being careful with her wording, not wanting to piss off the Moogle.

The Moogle was still watching her before moving away from Ciel. “Follow me, I know I way out, Kupo,” the Moogle said, starting to go down a path to their right. Ciel followed after the Moogle, not completely sure of what was going on, but she might as well trust the Moogle.

The two of them continued for a rather long time. Ciel had no clue of what to talk to the Moogle about, since this Moogle could be a rare wild one, but it could also be looking for it’s partner. It also didn’t help that the Moogle kept looking over its shoulder at Ciel either. Ciel was wondering if she already did something that pissed off the Moogle, but replaying the moment in her head, she couldn’t think of anything that she could have done. The two of them come out of the cave in a shorter amount time than Ciel had slipped into the cave thanks to Deadeye. The sun was still in the sky, but there wasn’t much time left to find a place that would ward off Deamons. Ciel could try and create ruins around them to keep them safe, but that was a slim chance that it would actually work.

“Follow me, Kupo,” the Moogle said, heading off down a worn path, catching Ciel’s attention. That meant that they were close to some place, but that kept Ciel in the danger.

The sun was disappearing quicker and quicker, it was making Ciel nervous, because she didn’t want to end up running into a Red Giant again after what happened this Spring Break, but she knew that she could handle it, but there was high possibility that she could die this time. The trees were luckily thinning out, and a female’s voice was heard calling out for- Mog? Ciel looked to Moogle who seemed to have picked up it’s flying speed and Ciel to actually start into a fast jog to keep up. Finally breaking through the tree line, they came out into an open field and it was a Chocobo Ranch. By the fence there was a girl, hopping over, rushing over to the Moogle- Mog, Ciel had assume that was the Moogle’s name. Ciel walked over, making sure that she didn’t look threatening. Mog said something to the girl, and the girl looked over to Ciel, making the Insomnia city girl actually freeze in her steps and try to look anywhere but at the girl.

“Are you Ciel?” the girl asked, making Ciel look up at girl and nod her head slowly. The girl smiled widely, heading over to Ciel, followed by Mog. “You don’t need to look so nervous, just a girl,”

Ciel felt like she was standing in front of the King and entire Council when she was getting Knighted along with Ignis. And that was years ago. This was just a girl that had to be around her age, but that didn’t matter currently. “I’m sorry, I guess it’s because I don’t interact with people that same gender as me often,” she said, admitting rather truthfully, surprising Ciel, but deep inside, it felt completely natural.

“I’m Merlyn, my father owns this Chocobo Ranch, and this little guy is Mog,” Merlyn introduced herself, as Mog floated around Merlyn’s head, watching Ciel carefully, much like he’s been doing since they met. “Do you have a place to stay?”

Ciel was going to say something, before looking over her shoulder towards the forest behind her, realizing that is pretty much too dark now to even get back to the Chocobo Post, unless she wanted to risk her life solo this time. She looked back to Merlyn, and shook her head. “I’m staying at the Chocobo Post, but I don’t think it will be wise for me to head back the way I came,” Ciel admitted, holding her left arm, feeling kind of useless currently since she didn’t want to risk her life to get back to the caravan.

“Oh, you can stay with us for that night, I’m sure my father wouldn’t mind,” Merlyn said, taking ahold of Ciel’s hand and pulling the girl after her, heading to a Ranch-style home, that looked kind of big for just Merlyn and her father, but they probably needed it for investors if they wanted to see how good of a place this was.

Ciel looked at all the Chocobo’s around her, all a different stages of life, and she was even becoming calmer with being with something that reminded her of a friend. The two girls went into the house, Mog flying ahead, when a head stuck out from around a corner, obviously Merlyn’s father. “Oh, you found Mog, that’s good… And a friend?” he questioned, wondering who could this person possibly be, Ciel couldn’t blame him.

“I’m Ciel, I had saved Mog from Goblin’s in the cave,” she introduced herself, waving her hand to the man. “I hope I am not intruding,”

The man laughed, shaking his head. “Not intruding at all, you saved a member of our family, I can respect a person like that, but it’s not very common to have Hunter’s as young as you out here,” he said, kindly pushing Mog out of his face, since the Moogle was still watching Ciel so intensely. “I’m Axel, Merlyn’s father and the owner of the Chocobo Ranch, it’s nice to meet you Ciel,”

“I’m not a Hunter,” Ciel said, looking down at her feet, wondering why in the world she just said that outloud. “I’m from Insomnia…”

“Oh, a Kingsglaive?” Axel asked, leaning against the corner now. “We’ve helped a few of them in the past, they are really nice people,”

Ciel shook her head again, looking up from her feet, feeling courage pump through her veins. “I’m a Crownguard.” she stated, suddenly fearing her status. What if they hated the Crownguard? Some of them were assholes, and that made people not a huge fan of them, but Axel nodded his head. “What?”

“We just had trainee’s come here for Chocobo’s, always like helping out with those training exercises they go on, it’s been awhile since I’ve been the Immortal,” Axel said, again with lightly pushing Mog out of his face. “Are you with them?”

Ciel shook her head, taking a deep breath, she was rather torn as to why she was just telling them all of this, but something inside of her told it was okay. “I’m a full member, and a shield to the Prince,” she told him, getting a wide eyed look from the three. “But I got permission to leave the City, the Prince is my best friend,”

Merlyn came over, taking both of Ciel’s hands in her own, smiling widely at the female before her now. “You are from Insomnia! What is it like?” she asked, her purple-silver eyes holding so much wonder in them. Ciel actually felt suddenly protective of Merlyn, even if they only met just moments ago.

That night, Ciel spent a lot of time with Merlyn, telling her about Insomnia, and kind of telling her about her mother. She even let Merlyn start braiding her hair because they wanted something to do as they waiting for dinner to be ready. Mog, was oddly wary of Ciel still, but the way Mog was acting seemed like there was another motive to his distance and staring. Ciel even came out about how she never really had female friends before and that meeting her must have been fate. The girls shared so many stories that night that they eventually fell asleep together in the living room. Axel had covered both girls up, and he would call Wiz in the morning to drop Ciel’s things off. He had a feeling that this girl would be around for awhile.

\-----------------------------

Ciel awoke to a draft that was wrapping her up in cold air, which she really didn’t like. When she looked around, she found herself in some hallway that was lit by candles and definitely nothing she’s ever seen before in her entire life. She got up off the floor and began to make her way down the hall, wondering if there was anyone around, but she was confused as to where everyone was. It was too quiet. Ciel looked out the open window, seeing that wherever she was was built into the side of a cliff, and she couldn't even see the bottom, due to it being night time, but clouds as well.

She continued along her way, keeping a careful eye out for anyone that could seem like a threat, but there wasn’t anything at all. There was no sounds, just the wind creeping through the corridor. It was chilling her bones the deeper she walked in. Ciel turned a corner, only to be greeted by the smell of freshly spilled blood. It was almost drug-like with how strong the scent of Iron hit her senses.  She continued to go down the fall, turning around another corner, only to be greeted by the horrible sight, bodies across the floor, all of them being slashed in the throat by some kind of sword, or implied. Ciel carefully walked over the bodies, not wishing to disrespect that dead. Something wasn’t right, and her steps kept moving faster on their own accord.  

Once she was free of the risk of bodies, her feet continued to carry her, like they knew exactly where she was needing to go. Her bare free where already stained red, carrying red across the floors, as she was heading off towards what seemed to be the throne room. Unknown worry was hanging heavy in her body, and she did not know the source of it, all she did was push herself forward more, not wanting to lose. But she didn’t know what she was at the risk of losing. Ciel saw at the end of a much larger corridor, double doors open, that lead into darkness. She sprinted down the hall, literally going head first into the darkness, where she found herself falling. Everything was moving too fast to even guess where she was, but she soon enough dropped into water, and was being pulled down.

Frantic, Ciel attempted to swim up towards the surface, towards the moon that was above her. But she could never get closer, she only seemed to be getting further and further away from it. She knew that she couldn’t panic, because if she did, she would drown, and that would be the end of her.

She closed her eyes, thinking to herself. This was a dream. Something that her mind created within her head of imagines that she’s seen in the past. With that in mind, she could breathe in the water, but what she was faced with, actually made her want to be drowning rather than facing the Hydrean right now. Leviathan was looking at Ciel, towering over her in the water. The Astral moved towards her, it’s head going up under her and pushing up towards the surface. Ciel hold onto whatever she could, but being careful that she wasn’t hurting the Hydrean in any way with her tiny hands.

Surfacing was probably the strangest experience she has ever felt within a dream, and when her eyes focused in on the view, her mind was having a hard time to pull this from a dream. This was Altissia, though in totally chaos and ruin. The Empire ships were everywhere in the area, and Ciel knew that it wasn’t in this state right now currently. Why would they destroy such a beautiful place? Is this why the Leviathan was so upset? Though this all felt too real. Ciel didn’t realized that she let go of the Hydrean and was falling. All she saw before she hit the water was a male in black clothing going by her, and he seemed oddly familiar.

She was sinking again. It didn’t bother her this time though, because she knew that she could breathe in the water. Something about what she just saw sent a feeling of foreboding in her entire body. A feeling that was sharp and strong. Something she wouldn’t easily forget. Deep inside of her, she could tell that this was a warning of kind. A Glimpse. Of what? She wasn’t sure, but if Ciel had to guess, it had to be the future. How far? That was the mystery. Ciel closed her eyes, letting her reflect on the other place she was in before Altissia. That was clearly someone’s memories, just not her own. Something was very wrong, or Ciel was literally going crazy due to some monster, but she hadn’t dealt with Deamons in a long time, and she was going to keep away from that.

Opening her eyes again, she found herself in the fields of Tenebrae, Sylleblossoms around her in her bright blue and dancing softly in the breeze. It felt so long ago when she was in Tenebrae, just herself, Luna and Noctis. Ciel began walking along the flowers, feeling finally at peace with her mind.

“ _Ah, you have arrived,_ ”

Ciel spun around, faster than she thought she was even capable of, to see a woman standing there that she had never met before. She stood in a dress as dark as night with trim as silver as the stars. Her hair was the purest of white, and her eyes were a pale shade of blue, almost like they were glowing. Her skin was fair, and her lips were painted a matte maroon red, to stay away from anything standing out too much. Ciel stood her ground, holding her hand out to her side, ready to summon. Though, the woman already had the axe in her hand, making Ciel even more nervous now.

“ _You were going to summon this? Am I correct?_ ” the woman questioned, looking over the axe, smiling fondly at it. “ _I see you keep it in good condition, not surprised that you would summon this first, it was either this or the broadsword first._ ”

“ _Who are you?_ ” Ciel questioned, getting into a more protective stance. “ _How do you even know me?_ ”

The woman looked up to Ciel, and laughed. “ _Let’s just say I’ve been by your side for a very long time,_ ” she said, sending the axe back to the void that she had pulled it from. Ciel watched the axe shatter much like how she summoned weapons, only the shattered glass to be more like feathers. “ _And I have a feeling we will be knowing each other a lot more now,_ ”

Ciel was scared, something was very wrong with any of this. Though at the same time, she was finding out more about herself. Something she wasn’t going to dwell on currently. “ _Why do you say that?_ ” she asked, feeling like there was more to this then she was being told.

The woman, smiled kindly at Ciel, putting a single finger to lips. “ _That is something I cannot tell you, but I can say, I am glad I got to meet you before anything happened,_ ” she said, turning around, and beginning to walk away.

“ _Wait! You can’t just leave after saying something like that!_ ” Ciel called after her, running after the woman, only to find the floor of a bedroom, and not the field of sylleblossoms in Tenebrae. She turned over onto her back and saw Mog flying over her, and Ciel suddenly felt very creeped out.

“You are awake, kupo,” Mog said, before flying off, leaving Ciel on the floor.

Ciel sat up, not even bothering to call after the Moogle. She looked at her hand, and easily summoned the axe into her hand. She started to think about her dream and began to panic. She remembered nothing, but the feeling of whatever happened in it still hung deeply in her mind. A knock came at her door, Ciel easily summoned the axe away, before getting up off the floor. She went over, and opened the door to see Merlyn there, who was smiling at Ciel. “Mog said you were finally awake, I just wanted to come see if you wanted to go out and see the ranch,”

Ciel thought about it, and nodded her head. “Sure, why not,” she said, noticing that she was dressed and ready to go anyways.

With that, the thoughts were left in the back of her mind, following Merlyn out of her room, unknown to her, that there was another in the reflect in the mirror of the bedroom she was staying in. A woman with white hair, watching after the two of them.  
  


Ciel had been on the ranch for most of the summer now, she told her mother all about Merlyn and her father. Told her all about the adventures she was having each day on the ranch. Axel was grateful for Ciel being about to deal with monsters that threatened the chocobo’s grazing in the field. Ciel soon came to learn about Merlyn being able to wield magic. Something she never saw outside of the royal family, their close members and the Kingsglaive, along with the Crownguard. Though not voicing any of that to Merlyn, Ciel helped Merlyn work on her magic, with the tips she had gotten from her own mother. She even let Merlyn watch her summon her axe from the void. Ciel was having a good summer, with new friends she made. But, of course, the summer was drawing closer and closer to an end with each passing day.

Ciel was outside one night, looking up at the night sky. What was her goal for this school year? With her training? She actually had a life that she needed to think about now. Something that she didn’t need to think about for a long time. Well, at least since the summer had started. What about Merlyn? Would Ciel still have a chance to keep in contact with her? Hopefully. Ciel actually really likes Merlyn. And this was the first friend that was the same gender as her. She didn’t want to lose that. Like she knows she wouldn’t but, it was something that was bothering her the further summer went. And having a person that was so good at magic was really nice, because Ciel was still mildly having troubles with that.

This summer really had a lot of new beginnings.


	11. Chapter Eleven - A New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a/n: hey, it's been awhile! Just me, the author, finally updating. Just been working on the chapters, and just been pretty busy! Hopefully will be pumping out these chapters quicker than before.

She marked another day off the calendar, noting that she needed to return to the City in the next couple of days. She needed to be fitted for her uniform, and get supplies. Among other things, she needed to catch up with her friends too. Ciel didn’t want to go through, but she needed to. Maybe a haircut as well. She picks up a couple strands of hair and noticed that her hair had gotten pretty long while she was out here, and it was probably time for a haircut before any training was done. Gladio would be mean and use that against her.  Any weakness was fair game with them.

Ciel headed downstairs and found the house pretty quiet, it seemed like Axel had probably gone out to do something, or took the chocobo’s out to graze. She walked into the living room and saw Merlyn curled up on the couch, watching a movie. Mog was even there, sitting in a chair of his own. “Is it the weekend?” she asked, leaning against the frame, clearly wondering what was going on. 

“Nope, but Dad did get a call from Wiz about some chocobo’s that he found,” Merlyn answered, turning around on the couch, and showing the face mask that she was wearing. “So, Dad just said that there was no work today and that he might not be home tonight, Wiz sounded pretty distressed.” 

Ciel nodded her head, kind of playing with her hair, before even mentioning it. “Um, Merlyn, do you know how to cut hair?” she asked, playing with her hair more. Ciel could do it herself, maybe with a few mistakes that would be very noticeable, but it would be cut. And there would be no way that anyone let her live it down. 

“Yeah, I do, I normally do my own or dad’s all the time, are you wanting a haircut?” Merlyn answered, her head tilted cutely to the side. 

“Yes, I was thinking that it was time for a change,” Ciel said, not moving from the door frame, not sure where she should go. 

“Come sit in front of me, we can get started right away,” Merlyn said, pointing to in front of her. 

Ciel nodded her head, and moved, at last, going to where Merlyn asked her to be. Taking a seat on the ground. “I want it above my shoulders,  I am really going to need it once, before I get back to the City,” she said, looking at her feet, not realizing that she really didn’t want to have this conversation yet. 

“Oh, right, you have to be returning home soon, don’t you,” Merlyn said, scissors already in hand and working away at Ciel’s hair. “What’s public schooling like?” 

“It’s really tiring, not that I should be bothered by it since I am constantly in the eyes of the people due to my position with the Crown, but I guess it’s because of that, I’m just not a huge fan of being in public for eight hours of the day,” she explained, thinking about it, remembering that Merlyn has been homeschooled her entire life, and never really had the chance to have the hassle of teachers. “I mean, since Middle school, it’s been just too much since I have to change classrooms pretty much every class,” 

“Aren’t you with the prince every class though?” Merlyn asked, her curious tone, reaching Ciel’s ears. 

“Actually, no, I don’t have to, nobody at the school is a threat to Noctis, we do background checks each year, just to be sure since we don’t want to have an issue,” Ciel explained, pulling her knees up to her chest, thinking about it. “But, I just put up with school because both of my best friends are there…. I really want you to meet them,” 

“Why don’t you tell me about them? You talk about them a lot and I really want to know more about these main four boys, and the others you talk about a lot,” Merlyn said, clearly very interested about all these new people that Ciel has mentioned in passing over the summer. 

“Well, there is the Prince, Noctis, he’s not at all what the paper writes him as, he’s really laid back, hates veggies of any kind, unless you don’t tell him that it’s in his food, and he’s actually pretty normal. Hates the attention he gets, just makes him uncomfortable. Next is Prompto, the local sunshine of our group, really bubbly. Loves gaming, chocobo’s and taking photos, but the photo’s are something he’s really good at, like it’s impressive,” Ciel explained, thinking back on the memories they had this school year. She was excited to hear about what they had to say about their summers. It was going to be good to be back in the City, even if she was going to miss Merlyn and the ranch while she was gone. “Our personal chef; Ignis. He’s really organized, and formal, but he’s not stiff or uptight. He actually keeps us all in order when it’s complete chaos. Also, is a lifesaver when it comes to studying. Last, but not least, Gladio. He’s the oldest out of all of us. Noctis’ shield. He really watches out for all of our backs. I usually go to his house to hang out with him after training, since he has a little sister and their father can’t always be home for dinner. They are all great friends, all that I’ve known since pretty much birth, but I am happy that I met you, you’re the first female best friend that I have ever had,” 

“Awe, that’s sweet of you, Ciel, I’m grateful too that you’re my friend and we got to meet,” she said, a smile obviously in her voice. “...I’m getting the impression that something happened between you and Gladio,” 

Ciel sighed but actually decided to be open about it. On the first go of the question being asked. “Yeah, we had a little falling out, but it’s working out on its own, and we’re getting closer again,” she said, thinking back to the weeks of not talking, or being in the general area of each other.

“And you obviously have a crush on him, because you don’t want to lose him,” Merlyn also, brought up, making Ciel become tense at the mention of it. “Wait, are you telling you that you never realized the jealousy was over the possibility that you might be attracted to him?” 

“I thought about it, but like, I’ve known him for so long, that I thought it might be a sister complex, since you know, he’s four years older than I am,” Ciel said, her eyes just hyper-focusing on the floor now, with this new bit of information that was pretty much slapped at her. “Gladio is really nice, and he’s always watching out for me… He even stayed at my bedside after the Red Giant attack over Spring Break… He waited for me to wake up… And he’s kind of cute… He does have muscles… And he’s confident,” 

“Oh, Ciel, you are smitten,” Merlyn stated, she laughs soft, as she continued her work on Ciel’s hair. 

Ciel just sat there silently, still in deep shock with the realization that, yeah, she did have a crush on Gladio. Mainly the whole reason as to why she hasn’t dated anyone yet. Or done anything really. She’s just been waiting for him. Ciel always blamed it on because she was too busy with so many things, like her duty to the crown, like school, and now, all of that just seemed completely pointless. Though, that entire fight wouldn’t have happened if Gladio’s personality didn’t do a complete 180 out of anywhere last summer. She still didn’t have an answer for that, but she wasn’t going to pry that from Gladio, he would tell her when he was ready. Was she obvious about her crush? Or was she just oblivious to her own feelings? What if that entire fight was her fault after all and Gladio did know about her crush and it made him uncomfortable? 

“What’s wrong? You just went silent?” Merlyn asked, stopping her entire work, and leaning over Ciel’s shoulder to get a better look at the teenage girl. “Did I say something wrong?” 

Ciel shook her head, pulling her knees even closer to her chest. “No, it wasn’t you, I just got myself thinking… Gladio and I had a fight because his personality did a complete turn from how it was normally… Like he’s normal now, but, I’m wondering if maybe my crush on him made him act like that,” she said, feeling her stomach drop to the very pits of hell, or wherever Ifrit roamed. 

“Hm, no, I don’t think that could have been the case, I picked up on it because I noticed the tone you took when talking about him,” Merlyn pointed out, leaning back and going back to her work. “You care about him, and it sounds like he cares about you too. Not any guy would fight with a girl and be on her deathbed,” 

Ciel thought about it, even if she wanted to only nod her head in agreement, she didn’t want to mess up Merlyn’s work. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said, feeling a bit better now. If Gladio didn’t catch on to her feelings than she should be safe. “...I never dated anyone because of the crush I have on Gladio,” 

“I’m surprised you never realized that you loved him so much,” Merlyn said, brushing off Ciel’s shoulders and looking at her, making sure that he work was done. 

“Like I said, I thought about it, even talked it over with my mother, but I kept just pushing it back since I didn’t want it to be like that,” Ciel said, reaching up and touching her hair. It felt different, but she was okay with that. It felt good. 

“Well, I guess it’s good that you didn’t you just fall into that at first, you really do care about him,” Merlyn said, pulling a mirror out, and showing her hair, making Ciel smile. “But right now, I think you look very cute, all the boys are going to be wanting you,” 

Ciel laughed, looking at her reflection, Merlyn was there behind her, making a bright smile, obviously proud of her work. Something about Merlyn’s smile made Ciel miss home and her mother. She spent an entire summer away from anyone she knew. But she made new friends and saw the world through her own eyes on her own, rather than with other people. She took a step towards being independent. It was something that she was proud of. Maybe when she got back to the crown city, she would have a chance to take to drivers test that she was kind of dancing around for weeks now because she really didn’t want a license if she didn’t have anywhere outside of the City that she wanted to be. Now though, she actually had a reason to get it. Because she wants to come back out here and see Merlyn, spend time with her when Ciel doesn’t have school. Plus, driving on the roads outside of the city would give her more freedom. 

“You know, I’m going to miss you,” Ciel said, looking over her shoulder to Merlyn. “Even if we just met this summer, I know I am going to miss you, just something deep inside of me is telling me that we’re going to be really good friends.” 

“I like the sounds of that,” Merlyn said, Mog flying into Ciel’s arms, surprising both girls, but making them both laugh happily. Deciding that today would be their day to enjoy the time they had left together.

 

* * *

 

Ciel looked at the walls of Insomnia. It had been a long day already. She woke up like she usually did, and said her goodbyes to Merlyn, Mog, and Axel, getting Merlyn’s cell phone number before she left so she could keep in touch with the girl while Ciel was back in Insomnia.  Now actually being at the gate, she kind of wanted to turn back and just stay at the ranch, but she knew that she couldn’t do that. So, with her head held high, and the memories of the summer still fresh, Ciel welcomed herself back home. Going through customs to prove that she is who she says she is, and what not, but after that, she caught a bus and began her travels towards Noctis’ apartment, knowing that Ignis would be there at least, or maybe even everyone else as well. 

She was really excited to be home, she had so much to tell them. She even had gifts for all of them. A limited edition thing of cup noodles for Gladio, something that wasn’t even in Insomnia. A few pictures of chocobo’s for Prompto, along with a Chocobo camera strap. She got Ignis some ingredients that he’s been wanting to cook with for awhile, along with a cookbook that she knew he didn’t have. Noctis was getting a black Chocobo stuffie, and some candy she found while stopping in Lestallum. She got fabric for Iris from Lestallum as well. As for her mother, some plants, ones that didn’t die on her. And for Cor, postcards, and pictures of some beast that she took down while she was out there. Ciel even got King Regis this really dorky dad hat because he needed something like that to embarrass Noctis with, and she was fully on board with fueling that. 

Getting to be back home was amazing, but now having a friend with the same gender as herself, it was really heartwarming. It was hard to leave, but she knew that she had to be home for right now. She would visit, she at least knew that she could do that. Thinking about Merlyn though, Ciel was still puzzled as to how the female could do magic without any form of having a connection to the royal family. Of course, she never brought it up, she just kept it to herself. She didn’t want to scare Merlyn about it. Ciel even knew that she wasn’t going to bring it up to anyone back here either, she didn’t want to cause trouble for Axel. As much as she wanted answers, she would wait on those ones. 

Stepping off the bus, she began her trek to the apartment, getting there in decent time and heading up. She was pretty much bouncing on her feet as she stood in the elevator. She couldn’t wait to surprise the guys with her return. Ciel only hoped that she wasn’t walking in on something that would scar her for life. She left the elevator and went to the door, kindly knocking and waiting. She heard something come from the kitchen, and footsteps heading her way. Ah, Ignis was here. 

The door opened, bright green eyes behind lenses met her own steel blue ones. “Hiya, Ignis,” she greeted, giving the adviser a warm smile. 

The shock was the first emotion that crossed Ignis’ face, followed quickly by happiness. “Ah, Ciel, welcome home,” he greeted, moving out of the way to let her in. 

Ciel slipped inside and saw that nobody else was around. “Where are the others?” she asked, looking to Ignis as he moved her stuff to the spare bedroom. 

“Off getting Gladio, he’s been going through some things lately,” Ignis replied, disappearing for just a moment.

Ciel walked more into the apartment, wondering what has been going on since she’s been gone. What has Gladio been going through? And why has nobody told her? They were friends, and she had a right to know about this stuff too. Didn’t she? Or at least she thought so. Taking a seat on the couch, she looked over to Ignis. “What happened to Gladio?” 

“His girlfriend broke up with him,” Ignis stated, leaning against the counter. “The fight was rather ugly. It didn’t help that he got his nose broken either by her father…” 

“Whoa, what caused the fight?” Ciel asked, concern taking her entire being. 

“Apparently she found your chat with Gladio, and all the stuff you talk about, and thought that he was cheating on him, he wouldn’t let her attack you verbally,” Ignis informed, watching Ciel’s eyes widen at the information. He knew that Gladio only dated the girl to not raise eyebrows, to fall into temptation. The adviser wasn’t blind. Even if he needed to correctional lenses. 

Ciel felt a wind of emotions play through her at the information. Gladio stood up to his girlfriend for her because they were friends? She looked down to the couch and began smiling to herself, happy that she wasn’t forgotten, but then her head snapped up at realizing that Ignis had said that Gladio’s nose ended up getting broken. “Gladio let his nose be broken?” 

“He couldn’t go out on the man,” he said, chuckling a little bit. “You and I both know that if Gladio fought back, he would break a lot more than that man’s nose,” 

“Point taken,” she said, sitting back on the couch properly, sinking into it. She forgot what it felt like to sit on this couch, and she was falling in love with it all over again. 

Minutes later, the door opened, and three voices were heard before all three stopped talking, obviously trying to figure out who she was. Ciel turned around and saw Prompto, Noctis, and Gladio; who still had the bandage on his nose. “Hey, guys, glad to see that you made it back,” she greeted, only to be plowed down by Prompto and Noctis that pretty much threw themselves over the couch, all three falling to the floor, starting to laugh happily. 

“Man, I missed you, it’s been so long,” Noctis said, laying on his side, looking down at Ciel. “Why didn’t you say you were coming back today?”’ 

“I wanted to surprise you,” she said, laying on her back, looking at the raven haired male. “Is that a crime now?”

Noctis laughed, shaking his head. “Nope, not a crime at all, I’m just happy you’re back.”

Both Noctis and Prompto helped Ciel back up and she looked over to Gladio, who was staying in the background, just kind of standing there. She went over to him and brought him into a hug. The Amicitia was taken back by the sudden hug that was given to him. Gladio though, returned the hug, keeping her close. Ignis had a soft smile on his face seeing that the two of them were interacting again, more normal. Prompto was grinning widely, seeing Gladio actually seem happy with his life since recent events. Noctis however, he was kind of just glaring at them. Unknown to Ignis, Gladio, and Ciel, Noctis had gain feelings for Ciel over the time of their first year of High School. He's really sawing how beautiful she was and hated seeing her hurt, especially by Gladio, since she’s been pining after him for about three years now. Nevertheless, he was going to admit that it was better seeing Gladio actually smiling after everything. 

That night, they hung out, laughing, telling jokes and Ciel letting them know all about her new friend Merlyn and her father, and Merlyn’s Moogle companion; Mog. She even shared photos. It was really beautiful outside the walls, and Ciel had taken so many photos of them. And her new friend looked like such a nice person, even Axel seemed like a nice father. They even played video games before calling it a night. There was a spare bedroom, but Prompto needed to take it since he had hurt himself last week. Ignis was more than happy to take one of the couches, and Gladio would too unless Ciel wanted the couch when he was more than cool with the floor, but what shocked the four was Noctis offering to share his bed with Ciel for the night. 

Nobody really had any protest, not like this was the first time that the two slept together. Everyone went their separate ways, and Ciel was left along with Noctis in his room. Both of them had already been in their PJs and slipped into bed without any kind of problems. They laid there, whispering to each other, just about whatever.  

“It seems like your trip went well,” Noctis mentioned after Ciel told him a story about how she was literally stuck in a group of wild ones and wouldn’t let her leave because they thought that she was a baby chocobo chick. “At least you learned not to wear yellow in the wild like that.”

Ciel laughed nodding her head, looking at Noctis. “Yeah, I learned, but it was nice,” she said, watching Noctis next to her stare back at her. 

They sat in silence, if Ciel wasn’t so deep in thought she would have gone down the path of how kind of romantic this was. Or at least someone had between the two of them. Noctis leaned in and placed his lips softly on Ciel’s and it froze the girl solid. She wanted to push him back, but she found herself slowly falling into the kiss naturally, encouraging Noctis, making the kiss deepen. It was obviously both teens first kiss, yet either of them didn’t care, they continued the kiss for a few minutes longer before they both had to break away to breathe. Noctis and Ciel were staring at each other before they both slowly started to smile. It was a surprising turn of events and they both felt the same. Actually, Ciel had kind of developed a crush on Noctis before she left, but she never really thought about it with everything that happened with Gladio. Yet now, getting to actually sit back and relax, think about everything as a whole, she didn’t want to ruin this. 

“Are you okay? I didn’t step over any line did I?” Noctis asked softly, resting his hand softly on her cheek. 

Ciel shook her head, rest her own hand over his. “No, not at all, I actually enjoyed it… Thank you for being my first kiss,” she whispered, feeling her cheeks turn slowly red. 

Noctis leaned in again, pressing his lips to hers. It was just a soft peck, but it made Ciel’s stomach twist into nice, tight, knots that had her in a joyful mood. They stayed close to each other, just smiling. They really didn’t have to say something. “Will you go out with me?” Noctis asked, hoping that she would accept. 

She thought about it, thinking deeply about it. What could go wrong? She has known Noctis for years, and she didn’t want to go through the troubles of learning all these new things about a person. “Yes, I would like that,” she said, nodding her head. 

Noctis’ smile widened, making Ciel’s own smile widen as well. They officially started dating. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. She never thought that this would happen, but she wasn’t against it at all. Neither was Noctis it would seem. The two of them went to sleep, cuddling together in peace, just happy.

Ciel awoke the next morning first, she slipped carefully out of bed, and grabbed one of Noctis’ light sweatshirts and headed out to join everyone in the living room. Ignis was cooking in the kitchen, Prompto was playing a new game on the TV and Gladio was sitting on the loveseat, reading a book. She really did miss all of them. She finally took a seat with Prompto on the couch, catching the attention of the blonde. 

“Isn’t that Noctis’?” Prompto pointed out, glancing at Ciel for a second before having to look back at the screen. 

Prompto’s question summoned the attention of Ignis and Gladio, both looking at her with puzzling looks. “Is Noctis awake?” Ignis questioned, looking towards the door, almost waiting for the Prince to step out any second now. 

“No,” she answered, cuddling deeper into the sweatshirt, trying to hide. 

“Something totally happened last night,” Gladio stated, his tone getting the teasing edge to it. “I could start listing what could have possibly have happened, but that would just kill the poor girl,” 

Ignis’ head whipped around so fast, Ciel was actually scared that he was going to snap his head off. “What do you mean by that Gladio?” the Adviser questioned, clearly not impressed that the Shield would even suggest something such as that. 

“Hey, I wasn’t meaning anything dirty, I’m just saying some touching might have happened… like kissing,” Gladio said, smirking at the poor girl that was trying to keep cool under all the pressure that was suddenly placed upon her. 

“Gladio, leave my girlfriend alone…” Noctis said, coming into the living room and going straight for Ciel and kissing the top of her head. “Morning, sweetpea,” 

Silence hung over the room before Prompto began clapping. “I didn’t think you would have the guts to do it, buddy,” the blonde commented, earning a glare from the Prince. Ignis was just standing in the kitchen, speechless. As for Gladio, he was just silent, making him realize that he might have just lost his chance to be with her. 

“Well, congratulations, when do you plan to tell your father, and her mother?” Ignis questioned, at last, knowing that it needed to be brought up now, rather than later. “Because you are the Prince and she is a retainer.” 

Both Ciel and Noctis looked at each other, both realizing now, that they did need to talk to their parents about this. In the moment of last night, neither of them even thought about such a thing until now. “Are you busy this afternoon?” Noctis asked, knowing that his father had a free period and that it wouldn’t be hard for Evelyka to come and join them for a few moments. 

“No, I don’t have anything planned, you think we should do it then?” she asked, knowing that look in Noctis’ eyes, actually kind of knowing his thought process. 

“Dad has a free period and told me to stop by if I wanted, and he can get your mother to come just for a few minutes if need be,” Noctis said, planning this out in his head. He rather has them both there than at separate times, it was only fair after all. 

Ciel nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea,” she said, thinking it over in her head as well. Getting them both together would just be less of a mess than getting them at separate times, possibly days apart. 

The other three within the room was watching this go on, amazed that the prince was being so organized for once, and Ciel was actually very much encouraging this behavior out of him with just a simple conversation or tell their parents about their relationship. This was something unexpected, but not unwelcome. Maybe their prince was finally learning? They weren’t sure. But they had nothing against this relationship.    
  


The couple walked into the apartment after lunch, both looking drained of energy. Ignis was the first to speak up once the two of the seated themselves upon the couch, completely going limp against the pillows. “How was lunch?” Ignis asked, leaning against the counter, pushing his glasses up. 

Prompto had paused his video game, and Gladio placed his book in his lap to listen to this story. It was a literal minute before Ciel replied for both of them. “They were happy, then Clarus came in… Slapping a nice handful of money into the King’s hand…” she said, starting to sit up more proper now, running a hand through her hair. “They had placed bets on who I would end up dating…. Apparently, it was a toss between Gladio and Noctis…” 

Silence hung overhead before Prompto cracked up laughing. “They made a bet on who you would start dating? And it was between Noctis and Gladio?” the Blonde asked, leaning forward, very interesting in this now. 

“Pretty much everyone was sure that it was going to be Gladio,” Noctis voiced, groaning, glaring over at Gladio. “I can’t believe that you out best me still when it comes to dating,” 

Gladio laughed now, leaning forward as well, smiling at the two of them. “Well, maybe that’s because we had a huge fight, and they thought that we would confess to each other,” he said, finally closing his book, and placing it on the side table. “So, did they approve?” 

“Yeah, they approved,” Ciel said, before pulling out folded pieces of paper that she had been given by none other than Regis himself. “But I have to go through Princess training,”

“But you guys aren’t getting married or anything like that,” Prompto pointed out, earning a shrug from Noctis. 

“It’s more of a just in case thing, but it’s also just for down the road if I do marry someone within the Crownguard, like Ignis or Gladio,” Ciel replied, looking at her new schedule. “It was coming anyway, Mom was getting them to hold off a little bit before I needed to, but I should have been doing this when I was like ten, but I never did,” 

Prompto nodded his head, understanding what she was going on about. “What if you marry me, huh?” He joked, smirking at Ciel, making her smile at him. 

“Then lucky you, your wife is combat trained and trained to be a lady and put all your coworker’s wives to shame,” she joked back, laughing a bit. 

“Well, now that we have that settled, are you both ready for the media attention that will start happening once this gets out?” Ignis asked, wanting them both to be ready for the pressure of the public upon them when it happens. 

Ciel looked to Ignis, then back to Noctis, whose eyes were towards the floor. It seemed that both of them hadn’t thought about that in the moment of everything. “We’ll get through it, and we have people to help if it gets too much,” she said, nodding her head, smiling to Ignis.

Noctis looked up at Ciel, amazed that she thought that she could take this on like nothing was wrong. She was always the more clear-headed thinker when it came to public issues. Despite Ignis being his Adviser, the glasses-wearing male wasn’t the greatest with the public, he was tactical, but Ciel had better handle on the public than any of them within the room. Prompto was more in the background and watch things fold out.  “What? Why is everyone looking at me?” Ciel questioned, confused as to why everyone was giving her a look of amazement like she did something magical. 

“Ah, nothing, you just have such a positive view of pretty much everything, something that some of us lack,” Ignis voiced, practically everyone’s exact thoughts about the very matter. 

Ciel just shrugged her shoulders, going back to her phone, focusing on her text messages with her mother. Leaving the three males to their own activities, knowing that it was better to not have the conversation go on any further than it possibly could be.

 

* * *

 

The week passed, news about their relationship had broken out across the kingdom. Many people voicing their thoughts wherever anyone would hear them. The Citadel was keeping a close watch on social media for possible threats, so far, nothing had come up, and it was only the third day of school. Ciel was getting all the nasty looks from every girl in their school, even some males, but it didn’t bother her learning. It seemed like it was worst in class with Prompto, Noctis, and Ciel taking the back corner of the class, by the request of the King for Noctis’ safety. 

Ciel spent most of her time at Noctis’ apartment as well. Things at the Citadel had been busy all summer with the Empire being active, needing to plan countermeasures and to be always ready for emergency meetings in the middle of the night, even if that meant being in their sleepwear. The young couple wished that they could go out on a proper date, rather than sit in the apartment, watching movies or playing video games. It was too dangerous. And threats seemed to be high right now, or at least the threat risk seemed high according to Ignis. He hadn’t really been getting all in touch with all of that, busy with his own work. 

But, that just meant more privacy. Ignis had learned his lesson with just walking into Noctis’ room when it was very obvious that the two were in there. He was rather taken back by how swift the couple moved into being rather intimate with each other. They were rather comfortable with each other, but that came with years of knowing each other… And taking baths together. Though, nothing went past shirts and pants leaving their bodies. Either of them wasn’t ready for that step yet. And didn’t wish to jump right into that after a week. 

Lessons for Ciel were long, but she was gliding through them with ease. She took it from a student/teacher standpoint with the desk lessons, when there were physical lessons, like dancing and how she needed to stand, she then she took the lessons from how she would train with Gladio. It wasn’t going to be too long before she would finally be done these lessons, yet she wouldn’t be done until she actually accompanied Noctis to the upcoming gala. 

Merlyn was poking fun at Ciel everytime the retainer brought up what they had her do this time. Merlyn kept Ciel in the loop about what was going with everyone. Wiz always told Axel to tell Merlyn to tell Ciel that he said hi and couldn’t wait to see her again. Ciel was even looking forward to going back out there once again. She was already getting tired of being back in the City due to the media and being locked behind doors. Merlyn kept telling Ciel that things were going to look up, and things would die out, they just needed to wait until it happens, which might be months down the road yet. Ciel hated to admit, Merlyn wasn’t wrong. This was something about Noctis, a royal, this was going to be the juiciest news that the media had. They were going to latch upon any rumors that would be going around. 

Pryna and Umbra came around, bringing the book that Noctis and Luna used to relay messages to each other, Luna even congratulated the two on their relationship. It was heartwarming. Ciel was brought back to Tenebrae each time she had received the book from one of the dogs for Noctis if he wasn’t around at the apartment. She still remembered that day. How Luna let go of Ciel’s hand, sparing them time to get away from the Empire. To save them. She couldn’t dwell on the past. 

In the present moment, Ciel was sitting around the kitchen table with everyone at the apartment with clothing magazines tossed across the table with sticky notes marked upon all the pages. Ignis had arrived, Gladio in tow with, both having arms full with them. Monica had gotten them from all the designers within Insomnia, it was time to start the hunt for clothes for the gala. Prompto was even coming to it, and since this was is very first one, he was quickly learning about how they prepared for these. Ciel was shoulder to shoulder with Noctis, both of them looking at one together. Since they were a couple, they needed to coordinate this year. Normally, Ciel would normally be escorted by Ignis, due to Noctis and his father entering together, Gladio would escort his sister, leaving Ciel and Ignis to just escort each other. Now Ciel would be entering with Noctis… And it was a little nerving. 

“Question, Do you guys end up having back up outfits if something doesn’t go right?” Prompto inquired, not glancing up at them, too focused on picking a suit that might look good on him if fitted properly.

“Depends on what you mean by the possible error,” Ignis replied, actually placing the magazine upon his lap, and looking to the blonde with a quirked eyebrow. 

“Like if someone spills wine or food upon your clothing by mistake… Or if your escort partner doesn’t show up due to illness or something,” Prompto answered, now looking up. This actually caught all of their attention and they looked up from what they were looking at as well. 

“...I don’t think we’ve ever had a problem like that,” Ciel said, thinking over the past few years. “I mean, the only time any of us hadn’t even was when we were too young to go. And you have to wait until you’re thirteen... “

“So, you and Noctis just started going to these things?” Prompto asked, looking at the couple that was cuddled up together, even if on separate chairs.  

“Pretty much, Gladio was been at it for years. Ignis is two years older than us.” Noctis pointed out, seeing it not as a huge deal. “And none of us get sick a lot either.” 

“I think your father got sick that one time, but you lead that gala well,” Ciel reminded the Prince, remembering the third gala they ever attended when they were thirteen. 

“Yeah, but other than that, none of us have gotten sick. I have been escorting Iris to the ones that she’s allowed to go to,” Gladio said, leaning back in his chair. “Not all the gala’s are you have to be thirteen. It’s only the really important ones. But Noctis usually enters with his father, and Ciel would get with Ignis.” 

“And none of you got sick?” Prompto asked, eyeing them. 

“When I broke my arm, I didn’t go, but then again, Noctis’ leg was acting up too, and Ignis was waiting on new glasses since he accidentally broke his, Gladio needed to babysit Iris because she got sick, but that was when she was younger,” Ciel said, thinking back to the one gala they had to miss for all separate reasons. “But, that gala wasn’t even an important one. It was for one of the workers that had been there for years, she had just turned 105, we all went and saw her the next day and wished her a happy belated birthday.” 

Everyone was silent and didn’t know how to bring the conversation forward. Or move it along. Though Ignis seemed to have caught onto something. “Prompto, are you saying that we should coordinate with each other, just in case something changes at the last second?” 

Prompto nodded his head meekly. “I mean, I understand and stuff, but like, wouldn’t it be better to do like a just in case plan? Because even though you were all lucky in the past, doesn’t mean you can be lucky all the time,” the blonde pointed out, really changing everyone’s point of view. 

“I think we should do that,” Noctis agreed, looking to Ciel for confirmation. “What do you think?”

“I think that would be for the best because Prompto has a point, maybe we should get together with everyone and talk it over others, just to have a plan b,” Ciel approved, going to Gladio for validation. “Anything against this?” 

Gladio shook his head, seeing nothing wrong with the idea at all. “You can’t be too careful, since this is such an important gala and all, so I am game,” the shield authorized, glancing to the adviser. “Think you can bring this up to Monica tomorrow? You’ll probably see her sooner than I will,” 

“Yes, I will bring it up to her, and to the King as well. I think both will think of this as a quality idea,” Ignis agreed, not seeing anything wrong with that. “Prompto, thank you for bringing that up now, I never thought about it in the past, and neither has my uncle,” 

Prompto rubbed the back of his neck, smiling bashfully at them. “It wasn’t really anything special, it was just a curious thought of the mind,” he expressed, lifting the magazine again, and started going back to his thing. With the conversation over, everyone went back to the magazines, more sticky notes being added to pages for a later time when they needed to go back and talk it over as a group for opinions on the matter. It was an important gala and they couldn’t risk being sick, and it was actually really good that Prompto brought it up as well because nobody had thought of it before. 


	12. Chapter Twelve - A Dance

School went along. The media attention was dying out, and Noctis and Ciel were finally allowed to go out and do normal things again. Ciel still got nasty looks, but they weren’t as bad as before. Prompto’s idea about a plan b was approved of right away after it was brought up to Monica, and soon enough the King. So, Ciel was busy now to match three other guys just in case something happens to Noctis. Ignis was the easiest to figure something out with, after all, he wasn’t for anything fancy. Proper, yes. Elegant, he doesn’t even try, and it just happens. Gladio was really easy too. It was mainly, something nice, and easy to move in if something was to happen. Prompto, he was having a rough time just trying to figure out. He kind of went with a formal prom look that wasn’t seen with any gala, but it was going to suit him well, even Ignis approved because a spark of normal was what they needed in there, Prompto would be a breath of fresh air. Ciel went with something simple for Prompto because of that. Because most formal prom dresses were easy to move around in and didn’t overpower the person. 

That left Noctis. The couple had to first find a blue shade, that worked with not only them, but with the King as well. Needing a lot of professional opinions on the matter, they luckily found one, and Regis even liked it. After that, they needed to find something that would work for all three of them. Ciel had to keep in mind, that she wasn’t looking for just herself and Noctis, but for the King as well. She was going to be walking out with them, her within the center, both acting as her escorts even though she was only going with Noctis, it was just how it was planned. So, finding something that was nice, not overpowering, was something of a task. There was good patterns that worked with both herself and Noctis, than there was others that work only with herself and the King...  Even ones that worked with Noctis and Regis. It was a tough battle. 

Ciel eventually fell into the kind texted words of Merlyn. She needed a non-professional opinion that wasn’t trying to get them into something that made a person stand out quickly. Especially the royal family. She sent pictures to the mage, and Merlyn replied, giving her suggestions, even sending pictures of her own to show Ciel, to give her an idea. Thankfully, through that, they managed to find the perfect one that pleased them all. Now, finally, Ciel had to worry about her hair and shoes for the gala. She had mainly gone with flats and short heels with the others, but with this, she was going to need a slightly bigger heel due to the dress that she was going to be wearing. And the fact that her mother wants her to be walking in proper heels before she graduated since Ciel was going to need to dress like an office woman during meetings if she was to sit in on them for her mother. Ciel was going to die, and she even told Merlyn the entire story of that conversation, and how that came to be. 

The days passed, and everything was just getting busier and busier. She didn’t even know what she was doing anymore, just kind of doing whatever anyone was asking her to do. Just following orders, she had gone into soldier mode until the day of the gala, when she awoke to a very surprising text message from Noctis stating the following;

 

{Princess}

\- _So, I’m deathly sick…_ / ** _photo attached_** / -[ **sent** ]

{Pupu}

\- _Holy shit… you look like shit_ -[ **sent** ]

 

Ciel was looking at the photo and Noctis just looked horrible. She hadn’t had a chance to even be around her boyfriend with getting ready with the gala, and just a lot of other things, like training, studying, and school. They both had such different schedules that it was really hard to work around them. And it seemed like the stress of everything had caught up to him at last. She had made mention through text several days before that he wasn’t looking too good, and even voiced it to Ignis. Apparently, he was doing a lot worst that he really let on, especially with his leg. Because the next photo was of his knee and food, but rather swollen, most likely due to the cold, and the possible infection that he could end up having if he didn’t get to a doctor soon. 

 

{Pupu}

\- _Did you call Ignis?_ -[ **sent** ]

{Princess}

\- _I tried, I think he’s busy right now with last minute prep for the gala_ -[ **sent** ]

 

Ciel bit her lip, knowing that nobody was home that she could rely on to get the help that Noctis needed, they were all at the Citadel getting ready for the gala as well. And the rest of them were going to be going there soon as well. She speed dialed the only person that she knew that she could get ahold of that this time. 

She waited for only two rings before she was answered. “Hello, Gladio speaking,” a rough voice replied, clearly showing that he just was woken up as well, and didn’t look at the caller name before answering. 

“Noctis is sick,” Ciel said, not even saying hello, mainly because this was kind of an emergency right now, and she didn’t want to be spending it wasting time on hello’s and how are you’s. “Ignis isn’t answering his phone, and you’re the only person that I can think of to get help,” 

“Whoa, yeah, I just saw Noctis’ text messages, and seen the photos… Shit, um, do we bring him to the Citadel?” Gladio asked, clearly trying to bring his thoughts together to form a plan with her, on a clear course of action. 

“Not, it’s going to be just too loud for him. You know how noise carries in there, especially during gala’s,” she reminded him, rubbing at the back of her neck, trying to think of anything that would help them right now. “We can get ahold of his doctor, but we need to go there and make sure that his leg isn’t getting any worse or risk his fever going out of control,” 

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, call the doctor after we get off, I’m coming to get you now,” he said, hanging up soon after, leaving Ciel to scramble around for socks and a sweater at least before calling the doctor, quickly informing him of Noctis’ condition and that Gladio and herself would be there once he arrived. She went downstairs, getting her shoes on and standing outside, waiting for Gladio to arrive. She was going to through her contacts, thinking of anyone that she could get ahold of. 

Her next contact ended up being Nyx. Who answered right away. “Hey, is something wrong?” he asked, clearly taking things very seriously with just her calling. 

“I’m fine, but not so Noctis, he’s badly sick,” Ciel informed him, tapping her foot on the landing outside the door while she waited. “Gladio and I sent for the doctor, but I need someone to come watch him for the gala, Gladio and I need to be there, even with Noctis being sick,” 

She could hear Nyx’s movement through the phone, like he was searching for someone. Probably Luche, or even Titus. Hopefully for either the King, her mother, Ignis, Cor, or Clarus. This was something that was needed to be known about now, they were running short on time, and they can’t risk messing this up. “I’m going to find someone, and I’ll head over as soon as I can,” Nyx said, than hanging up himself, which was perfect time, because Gladio pulled up. 

Ciel stuffed her phone into the pocket of her sweater before rushing down the steps and getting into his truck. He took off before her seatbelt was even on, but that didn’t matter, they had a duty to do right now. “Get ahold of the doctor?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the road. 

“Yeah, I even got ahold of Nyx, he’s going to get the word out about what’s going on and head over to watch Noctis for us,” she said, tapping her finger against the seat. 

The blanket of silence fell over the two of them, neither one of them could really continue the conversation, there wasn’t anything to really talk about. Not that they minded, but they would have all this time to talk later, and hopefully once they grabbed Prompto and they all got to the Citadel, they would have gotten to news and everything will be dealt with and they would just go with like it was any other gala. Just without Noctis. Everything would be fine. 

“Um, how are you and Noctis? I noticed that you both having been hanging out a lot lately,” Gladio inquired, obviously just curious about what was going on due to everyone being so busy. “I hope things are getting rocky for you both,” 

Ciel glanced over at Gladio before looking out the window again to think. “Things aren’t rocky… Just our schedules are so different,” she said, actually thinking about it more now, not really dwelling on it this long before. “Sometimes I wonder why he’s even dating me, I know he likes Luna,” 

Gladio was actually taken back by her saying that last bit. Of course she knew Luna, she met the Oracle with his Prince after his accident. She had gone with due to her mother being out on a mission and not really having anyone to look after her. “So, are you going to talk to him about it?” Gladio asked, trying not to sound too interested in it, but he did want some kind of answer. 

Ciel was silent for a bit, and she looked at Gladio, actually looked at him. “Probably, I just let it slide, but since I’ve been getting deeper into my noble training, I’ve just been realizing more and more that I wouldn’t marry Noctis, it’s just not a thing,” she said, just sinking into the chair now, smiling sadly. “He has a crush on me now, but how soon will that just turn back to friendship? All because he realizes that he’s just wants Luna. Who says that he hasn’t already? Noctis is nice, but I rather have him as my friend, than let this relationship ruin us,” 

Gladio then pulled the truck over to the side of the road, placing it in park, looking at Ciel now. “I think he knew that he’s always going to want Luna, and yes, he does care about you, and maybe it’s because of his longing for Luna that he’s getting it confused with love, but don’t beat yourself down, you will find somebody that is right for you,” he said, now facing out the windshield of the truck watching the raining beginning to hit against the glass. “I know this relationship isn’t going to break your friendship, it’s not going to mess anything up with our group, since it hasn’t been going on for a long time. Yes, your break up is going to be a mess to deal with, but I know that you will have anything cut down in seconds, and you know that we all have your back,” 

“Thank… You know, I miss you giving me lectures like that,” she said, smiling a bit more, looking at Gladio. “When was the last time that we just sat together, deciding that Noctis just wasn’t as important at the moment to just deal with a few housekeeping items?” 

“..A long time, a very long time,” Gladio voiced, laughing a little bit. Yeah, it’s been so long since either of them could have a conversation like this, a real one. One that let all the raw emotions out like this, even after their huge fight. Maybe this was the turning point that was needed. 

Gladio took the truck out of the park and started their way back towards Noctis’ apartment, needing to be there before the doctor. But the truck ride seemed that much easier.    
  


They arrived at the Citadel in one piece, Prompto had gotten picked up by Cor instead of Gladio and Ciel, due the two of them waiting with the doctor until Nyx arrived, and when they arrived, Ignis had greeted them at the two at the top of the Citadel steps, looking rather professional, more so than normal. “Ah, I’m glad you both made it, I hope the Prince wasn’t causing too many troubles,” he said, smiling at his friends in a warm manner. 

“Noct was just acting properly for the situation that he was in,” Ciel said, beating Gladio to saying anything because she knew that he would joke about it, he’s been doing it the entire time on the ride over. She at least needed to defend her boyfriend’s pride when he wasn’t here to do it himself, especially from his shield. “Has everything been okay over here? I hope Noctis being sick wasn’t too much of a set back to work around,” 

The three of them had walked into the Citadel, the halls were full of life as people were busy getting the last pieces of the gala together before the evening came. Ignis thought about it, trying to recall everything that he had talked about with the King. “Yes, we have, Ciel, you will be escorted by the King, well, you will be escorting the King, but that’s just a minor detail,” he said, pushing his glasses up, as they stood outside one of many elevators that would take them up to see the King and the others. “With this, you will be having the first dance with the King, since you are Noctis’ girlfriend, it would only make sense that you would be just staying on track with just being in the clothes that were planned for you originally.”

Ciel thought about it, seeing it play in her head, nodding her head. “No, that makes sense, I hope I don’t step on his foot,” she joked, earning a laugh from the two, lightening the mood. 

“I bet you’ll be fine,” Gladio said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in for just the usual side hug, something Ignis hadn’t seen in awhile, or feel the tension that was between the two of them. 

The trio walked into the elevator once it finally arrived, closing the door before any other could join them due to the fact that they needed to start getting ready for tonight, which was a process of hours with the stylist doing everything in their power to make it on time, even with a set back as Noctis being here. But Ignis also wanted to talk to the two alone, especially with them talking like nothing happened at all. 

“So, when did you two become best friends again?” Ignis asked, eyeing the two of them, as the two stopped their conversation, looking at each other, then to Ignis, just shrugging at him. He knew that they were keeping something from him, but he just didn’t push the issue, it would soon come to light. “Well, whatever happened, I’m glad you guys were able to overcome your issues and be yourselves again with each other,” 

With that topic dropped, the two went back to their conversation, and Ignis just stood there, listening to them chat away. This was an interesting development. Maybe there was a conversation that was shared between the two, and they were more open about things with each other, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. If the others notice, than he would gladly just talk to them if it’s brought up to him, because he didn’t know that much, but the change was good. Especially for the future. 

 

* * *

 

 

Ciel was pacing back and forth in the hall. It was almost time to walk in. She was going to be walking in with Regis, the King, and that placed her more at the centre of attention than she wanted right now. She felt like she was just a puddle of water under her dress, when she knew that she wasn’t sweating at all. Maybe her body had dropped a few degrees due to stress, though she really needed to get her head into a better place before going out there and dancing with the King. The first dance, and hope that she didn’t step on toes. Hands falling on her shoulders caused her to jump, making her turn around to see Gladio there, giving her a smile. 

“You’re going to ware out the floor like that if you keep pacing,” he joked, seeing how tense she was about all of this. He couldn’t blame her for being so nervous since she was going with the King and not the Prince, much more expectations that she needed to stand up too and show that she could go beyond them. “Everything is going to be fine, you look beautiful, and Regis will try everything in his power to make you as comfortable as possible, and I steal you away later if you want.” 

Ciel looked at Gladio, finally closing her eyes and just taking a deep breath. She was panicking over something that wasn’t a huge deal. Gladio was very much correct about everything, at least she thinks. She wasn’t too sure that she looked beautiful, mainly because she was working herself up and she might have messed up her hair a little bit. But he was very correct about the King making her comfortable with all of this, he was like a father to all of them, especially at events like these. He was just too kind. And Gladio was most likely going to stay at her side the entire night once everything official was dealt with. 

“Better?” He asked, seeing her doing breathing exercises to calm herself. At least she knew how to take care of herself in situations like these, she just needed to be grounded first.

“Much,” she voiced, opening her eyes finally to look at him. “I just, I'm not used to this, this is all just so new to me, because I don’t know what I am even doing, this all just happened, and I’m almost a senior in high school… I’m getting off track, just everything is finally catching up to me and I am so overwhelmed with it all.” 

Gladio nodded his head, understanding completely. He actually could see it as well that she was getting a little much placed all over her. And that it was finally just now that it was all getting to her. Though it probably has been for the past couple of weeks now with all the planning and now with it all done and the moment had arrived, she was now looking the issues all in the face and just freaked out by it all. 

“Ah, there you are,” Evelyka said, appearing from nowhere, scaring the two, making them jump apart from each other. “Oh, are you two busy?”

Ciel shook her head and looking at her mother with a smile. “No, we are not, what can I help you with, mom?” she asked, wanting to get this dealt with quicker than having to wait around any longer. 

“It’s time to line up, you both just kind of disappeared,” she said, looking at the two, she could tell that there was something different about the two of them, but she wasn’t going to address that right now, seeing as that there was no time to really be talking about something like that. “Come on, we can’t keep everyone waiting.” 

Gladio and Ciel followed after Evelyka, softly body checking each other, smiling a bit because it was something a little funny. They didn’t say anything else, just going to stand with who they were meant to stand with. Regis offered his arm to Ciel, and she took it, smiling up at the King, before facing forward, only for Gladio to offer his arm on the other side, confusing her. “Um, Gladio, what about Iris?” she asked, looking behind her, seeing that Libertus was dressed up in a suit, escorting Iris. 

“Ah, that is because you and Gladio will be having the first dance,” Regis said, making Ciel look at him confused. When was his decision? “My leg is acting up as well, I do not wish to retire early tonight because of it, so we will both be escorting you in.” 

Ciel nodded her head, feeling but a might more better about doing this now. With Gladio, at least he could make sure that she didn’t fall, and she didn’t risk hurting him, he was just a body of muscle anyways, so he was more solid than she was by far. The trumpets started, Ciel took a final deep breath before she walked out with Gladio and Regis, her head held high, and putting all the training to use now. By the time that they all had gotten to the floor, they all bowed to each other in greeting, before Regis offered Ciel to Gladio; he was holding out his hand to her. She smiled, taking his hand, before he gently pulled her to him, both of them ready to dance. 

The music began, and they started dancing. Everyone was watching them from the sides, just looking on as they took their steps, swaying back and forth, spinning here and there. She felt so nervous. She didn’t look that she was meant to be with Gladio at all, but at the same time, they looked perfectly fine together, just perfect. Others soon began to join in, everyone having starting off the evening slow. Ciel was looking up at Gladio as he was looking down at her, both just lost in each other’s presence and the music. Whenever she was practicing dancing with Noctis, they were exactly like this, but it just didn’t feel right, like it wasn’t meant to be , at least not just like it is with them now. As friends, it would feel much different. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Gladio asked, kind of taking her to a quiet corner, away from most of the people who were dancing now. Knowing that they would not be missed. 

“Just thinking how right this is right now,” she whispered, shaking her head, the finding is stupid to say such a thing, especially when she was in a relationship. “With Noctis, it just doesn’t feel right, or even work, it’s stiff and awkward. As friends, it never was.”

Gladio nodded his head, understanding where she was coming from. When he was being so awkward with Ciel these last few months and weeks until today, he couldn’t just say sorry to her, or just admit that he was wrong, because he knew that he did some very wrong things to her, and she didn’t deserve any of it. “No, I get where you are coming from, but what matters is that you gave it a shot, and you getting knock Noctis down, you thought that it was going to be a good idea,” he said, finally getting them out on the terrace to look out over the city, both of them stopping the dance to go and lean against the railing. “Noctis isn’t going to hate you for breaking up with them. Regis isn’t going to hate you either, everyone just parts ways, and you know what’s more important to you, and what you feel is right,” 

Ciel nodded her head, brushing some of her hair back from her face as she let the wind brush against her face in a cooling manner, actually keeping rather calm while standing out there with him. “I know that, and things will be perfectly fine between us, but at least I know now that things wouldn’t have worked out,” she said, smiling a little bit, just glad to know that nothing was wrong. “It’s weird that I figured this all out tonight, with Noctis around, maybe that’s a good thing because it only would be hurting us more than it needed to be.” 

“Yeah, and it would strain your friendship,” Gladio said, seeing what exactly what she meant by that. At least she was being honest with him and having a conversation with him without keeping many details from him. 

“Hey, there you two are,” a voice joined them, going to Ciel’s left, where Regis was when they first walked into the room, now it was filled by Prompto and Ignis. “What are you two doing out here? Too cool to a party?” 

“Just talking about stuff, stuff that I just pushed to the back burner for maybe a little too long,” she said, thinking about it all. She really did push it back for too long. 

“Ah, your relationship with Noctis?” Prompto asked, surprising them all that the blonde brought it up so casually like that, and that he knew something was up. “You’re both realizing that being friends is better than a relationship,” 

“How do you even know that?” Ciel asked, just staring at the male in disbelief. 

Prompto looked out over the city, actually looking serious. Something that was so rare to happen, but it obviously meant that he knew something. “Noctis worried himself sick over it because he didn’t want to hurt you, he realized that he was just pulling you after him because he was chasing after Luna,” he explained, actually giving them a reason about how Noctis getting sick could have happened. “But he didn’t want to bring it up because he was seeing how stressed you were, but I guess it’s because you were also worried about hurting Noctis if he was really falling for you,”

“You know us too well,” Ciel said, shaking her head with a smile, looking out over the city again as well, leaving Ignis and Gladio to just be staring that the best friends with shock. With just a few little words, and they figured out everything, and both parties were feeling the same thing. At least then nobody would be getting hurt again, but it was good that they were realizing these things now, rather than a year down the road where bridges might be at the risk of being broken due to the fact that they went too far about hurting each other, only to drive themselves mad. 

“So, what now? When are you going to talk to Noctis?” Ignis asked, wondering if he should be ready for cooking for one less person in the near future.

“I’ll go see him tomorrow, if he’s well enough, then, I’ll talk to him,” Ciel said, looking to Ignis, a smile on her face. “I think everything will be okay. Especially if we do this. Nothing could go really wrong.” 

Ignis nodded, before patting Prompto’s shoulder, beckoning the blonde to come with him, leaving Gladio and Ciel along again on the terrace. Ciel looked to Gladio, sighing. “Is it too soon?” she asked, biting her lip.

“Nah, the sooner, the better, for both of you,” he said, turning around to face the ballroom, seeing people hanging out together. “You ready for media backlash?”

“It’s whatever,” she said, doing the same thing as him, looking at everyone within. “I’m apart of the Crownguard, I can handle it. I could just ask to but on duty at the Citadel and just do my lessons online until it quiets down… But I need to tell Regis tonight before we leave, he at least needs to know ahead of time.” 

“That is fair, but just remember I will be there with you, and if you want, you can some spend the night at my place and I’ll take you over to Noctis’ tomorrow before training,” Gladio offered, rubbing the back of his neck. Maybe it was too soon, but he at least was going to put it on the table.

Ciel thought about it and nodded her head. “Yeah, I would like that…” she replied, looking up at him, smiling widely at him. 

The stayed out there the entire party, actually, the King came out to them and Ciel took the moment to tell him what was going to happen, and once again, surprisingly, he knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, he could tell that their friendship was more important to the young couple than trying to move past feelings for another. Gladio actually asked if Ciel liked another, but she brushed it off as that she wasn’t going to tell him, he was going to need to earn that right to know such a dark secret of hers.

 

* * *

 

The two left early, sneaking away to head back to Gladio’s place, just to get some alone time. They were both sitting in Gladio’s room, both just laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. “You know, I didn’t mean to be such an ass to you,” Gladio confessed, finding that tonight seemed to be the night that they were just confessing a lot of things, and apologies were coming forth from both sides.

“Whatever, we started working through it, I mean, at least we’re comfortable enough to be with each other again,” she pointed out, reaching out towards the ceiling like she was trying to grab something, her hand opened wide. “You know, while I was outside of the city, without you all, I never realized how much I was lying to myself, and that I need to speak up more,” 

Gladio turned his head to look at her, interested in where this all came from. “So, you found yourself?” 

“I understand myself better, not completely but better, and I would say that also with what’s happening right now,” Ciel said, nodding her head, her head still high above her head, just letting it stretch out further still. 

“Still not going to tell me about who you have a crush on?” he asked, wanting to bug her about that because he was very curious about that. 

“Yeah, no, you will never find out about that,” Ciel said, finally dropping her arm against Gladio’s chest, looking over at him with a smile. “I told you that you needed to earn that information.” 

“I’ll figure it out, probably,” Gladio challenged her, knowing that he was going to be doing some heavy digging about this.

“Good luck, I wouldn’t make it that easy,” she said, laughing, taking his challenge in stride.

 

* * *

 

It was raining. Why was it always raining when someone needed to tell someone something, it was like the Astrals just wanted this to be more dramatic than it needed it be. Ciel was sitting on Noctis’ couch, he was getting dressed, and was going to joining her out for a warm drink that she made. Gladio wasn’t there like he said he would be, he needed to help out at the Citadel with an issue real quick, but would come and pick her up later. She was nervous, but Noctis was looking so much better. Sleep did wonders for him, but his leg wasn’t any better. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Noctis said, finally joining her on the couch, his voice still horse. “What is it that you wanted to talk about?” 

Ciel picked up her cup, not wanting to grip at the couch. Taking a deep breath, she looking to Noctis, making eye contact with him. “...I think we should stay as we were before any of this,” she spoke, her voice soft, not wanting to play this off as something that wasn’t important, because it was hard. “I gave it a shot because, well, I thought maybe you did really like me, but I knew, deep down I knew that you were still chasing after Luna, and you needed to know that you could get over her.” Ciel took a sip of her drink, breaking eye contact with Noctis for a second to do so, before going back to the eye contact. “I’m not hurt my your actions, because, I think I was running away from my feelings for another as well, because I just don’t think I have a chance with them, but I hope that our relationship didn’t affect our friendship in anyways,” 

Noctis, he just stared at her for a moment, even going as far as giving her a soft smile, and took a drink from his own cup, placing it on the table, and focusing on that. “I knew you would catch on sooner or later, and I would have talked to you about it sooner, but with the gala coming up, I didn’t want to discourage you before something so important,” he explained, his reasoning as to why he didn’t say anything earlier, he didn’t want to hurt her, especially before something like that. “And I just want our friendship, because I want you to give it your all to get Gladio’s attention, and to get him to mature as a man,” 

Ciel looked at Noctis, mouth gaped by his statement. “I thought I managed to play it off as I didn’t care about him anymore,” she said, knowing she told Noctis and Prompto when they were much younger, but she wasn’t the greatest actress that she thought she was for the last several years. 

“Hey, you need to chase after him, Gladio has such a thick skull because he’s a shield, he doesn’t realize that he needs to look at the bigger picture, but I see how you and him are, you guys get along so well, and I don’t understand why you both aren’t together yet,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, smiling warmly at her. “Just keep trying, and maybe he’ll see your affections soon, and if he starts dating another, just try to outshine her in every possible way that you can, any other girl is no match for you,” 

Ciel laughed, hugging Noctis, finding it easier to talk to him like this. They were friends, and it was how it was meant to be. Just best friends hanging out, and encouraging them to chase after that one person that they wanted. “Well, we’ll figure out how to help Luna and her people,” she said, looking up at the Prince, a determined look upon her face. “The Empire needs to be taken down, and we will not give up until we do, or will be die. I promise you that.” 

“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep,” he said, lightly pushing her way, just to be playful, but also because he was still not feeling too well and he didn’t know if his fever and stuff would jump back at anymore, and he didn’t want Ciel to get what he had. 

“It’s my promise, and I’ll do whatever I want,” she said, lightly pushing him. 

The two sat there, chatting back everything, catching the other up on what they missed while they couldn’t hang out. Gladio came and saw that they were chatting away, but Ignis had walked in right after, ushering Noctis back to bed, saying that he needs to be resting, not be social with his friend like this, especially after the night that he had hours before.

Gladio and Ciel left soon after, having a nice chat with Ignis, then they headed for the Citadel, talking about training. It was mainly going to be focused on switching between weapons, but there was going to be a little bit of hand to hand combat as well since it would be better for them to get some of that in as well. 

“Okay, so, I got the whole weapon summoning down with no problems,” she said, as she was switching towards the weapons before she finally stopped, looking to Gladio. He was looking at her like he was trying to figure something out before he held out his hand to her. “Um, yeah? What is it?” 

“I want your hand,” he said, chuckling softly at her. 

Ciel reached out, resting her hand upon his, letting him lead her into a dancing position, and slowly starting to dance with her. She went with his movement, looking at him with a questioning gaze in his eyes. “What brought this on?” 

“Dancing is good for training, it’s like working on muscle memory,” he said, literally pulling that out of his ass as an excuse. 

“You know you could have just said that you wanted to dance with me,” Ciel pointed out, trying not to laugh at the effort that you put in for the excuse.

“Oh, shut up,” he said, twirling her and bringing her back to his body again. 

Unknown to them, a group of family and friends were watching them, even Noctis was there, mask on his face, and arms crossed. “You know, Gladio is going to need to make a move soon, he’s limiting himself,” the young Prince voiced, keeping it low, not wanting to be caught by the two that are casually dancing. 

“You are not the only one, as his father, I was to watch him get frustrated at himself for doing so,” Clarus threw in, enjoying the sight of his son seeming happier again, just being with her once more. “This morning, I went to see him, they two of them curled up in bed sleeping, it was peaceful,” 

Evelyka was watching them, and she felt something bubble inside of her. Her daughter was happy, really happy, and she only wants her to make the right choices that she did not make, especially when it came to her own daughter. “They’ll do the right thing… together,” she voiced, leaning against the doorway, believing in the two of them, but it also seemed that Evelyka; as a mother, needed to step up and be the mother that she should have been years ago. 


	13. Chapter Thirteen - The Start of Something New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been awhile everyone, well, new chapter, and starting to get steamy.

The lesson dragged on and on and on… Everyone was already making plans for Halloween. And school just started more than a month ago. But this year at least meant responsible parties that they could go to; with Gladio’s and Ignis’ permission, and that they tagged along. Ciel didn’t like the fact that those two might not be able to relax, or literally be glued to Noctis’ side if they were to go to one… Not like they could go to any of the parties that Gladio goes to, they were too young to drink still, and neither of the Crownguard members would allow the three of them to underage drink.

Out of all of this, Ciel had been back into school quickly after the break-up was announced, nobody was really bothered by it, they all brushed it off as that they needed to do it for some protection reason for the Prince. All of Insomnia knew of Ciel’s position among the guard, so it was nice that is what they chalked it up to be, and that was what they went with.

Glancing up at the clock, Ciel was waiting for the bell-like anyone else. Five more minutes. It felt like it’s been five more minutes since the start of the day. It was Friday too, so it was even worse than it was any other day; Monday is a close second. Graduation was months off, but it was getting that much closer. It was that much sooner that she would be at her new job at the Citadel, and just enjoying her time. She leaned back in her chair, looking to Noctis; he was more focused with outside then whatever the teacher was going on about. Prompto was doodling in his notebook, which wasn’t anything new; especially on a Friday. Ciel had a book on her desk that she was reading, a recommendation from Gladio, which was also borrowed from his personal library in his bedroom. It was the fifth on in the series, one of Gladio’s many favorites, and Ciel had started taking an interest have read the first chapter while she had gone over there one day.

Since the dance, Ciel and Gladio had been hanging out a lot more. Completely back to the normal, like nothing had happened. Many had comments about it, but neither were bothered, they just went along, or somehow managed to shut whoever up with some smart choice of words. It was just how it came with being friends and growing up.

Speaking of hanging out, Ciel was going over to spend the weekend over there with Gladio to babysit Iris as Clarus was at the Citadel with meetings. Just a weekend of movies shows and whatever happened after Iris went back to bed. Ciel kept pretty safely on her feelings to Gladio, not wanting to have them grow, and ruining this all over again because there was no way that Gladio had the same feelings as her. There was literally no way. There was no way that she would be starting this all over again, or risk never being able to be in the same room with him again. This was just what she had to live with, and she wasn’t going to change that now.

“So, you going to hang out with Gladio?” Prompto whispered from behind her, making her kind of half turn in her seat to still be paying attention to the teacher but also being able to reply to Prompto without needing to disrupt the whole class.

“Yeah, babysitting Iris,” she replied, leaning closer to Prompto with a smile. “It’ll be nice to finally get back there, nothing is awkward now,”

“But you still have your feelings for Gladio,” he pointed out, making Ciel glare at the blonde. “What, it’s not a lie,”

“Yeah, but I’m trying to keep that quiet and seeing if it will just pass, and it’s not like he will want to date me anyway,” she said, catching Noctis’ attention, causing him to lean over as well.

“Who says he doesn’t?” Noctis poked, smirking at Ciel, making her look at the Prince, her eyes slightly widened at the thought. “Gladio has not done any one night stands or anything like that for a while now, it’s strange, and none of us know why, nobody can get an answer,”

Ciel thought about it and just shrugged. “Maybe… he just got bored?” she asked, making what she was talking about to come off as a question more than a statement like she wanted. There was no way that she would be able to convince these idiots about any of this.

Prompto and Noctis gave each other a look before looking back at her with grins, sinister grins. “Why don’t you try and flirt with him a little bit this weekend, maybe it will get him to crack,” Prompto suggested, making the girl, bit her lip and look away from them. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Oh yeah, because I am so good at flirting,” she whispered to them, shaking her head. “...I don’t think I can,”

“Ordered by your Prince, I say flirt with him and give us results,” Noctis said, actually pulling the Prince card out on her. Prompto pretended to fact horrid shock by what Noctis pulled, while Ciel was actually shocked that he did that on her of all people.

“Okay, your highness, I will,” Ciel said, taking the challenge, wiping her face of the shock that settled there for like a minute. “I’ll show you what I can do…”

 

Ciel stood outside the door with Prompto and Noctis, both boys walked her right to the door, because they wanted her to see this through, and not chicken out. She had planned to, but Noctis knew her all too well about what back plan that she could pull up before school ended that day. Now, the boys stood at the gate, giving her no place to run off to, and she stood at the door, her hand clenched into a fist to knock, but she felt frozen in place. She was freaking out, she had to flirt with him because Noctis pretty much ordered her to. And she couldn’t back down from it. Noctis wasn’t the one to use that power, but if he needed to, or saw a reason to do so, he would do it. And he thought that this was time to exercise that power upon her.

Prompto rushed up next to her, knocking on the oak door before she even realized what was going on before he sprinted back to Noctis, both boys taking off, leaving her there, about to run after them before the door opened up and a cheerful girl greeted her with the biggest smile. “Ciel!”

Turn quickly on her heel, and smiling widely at the younger Amicitia, playing off the murderous aura as clearly nothing. “Iris, it’s been so long, and you’ve gotten so big,” she said, greeting her, letting Iris pull her inside before closing the door.

“I cannot wait to hang out with you this weekend, just you, me, and Gladdy!” Iris said, excited that the weekend was going to be something that she remembered. “As long as you don’t let Gladdy cook dinner, we should be fine,”

Ciel laughed, nodding her head. Gladio was a better cook now, she knew that, after the last kitchen incident here, but she’s beginning to wonder if maybe Gladio let himself good a little bit with getting so caught up in training. “Well, maybe I’ll just need to get him back into shape with cooking,” she said, taking off her shoes, before placing them neatly next to Gladio’s running shoes. “Is your brother home?”

“Gladdy! GET DOWN HERE AND SAY HI TO CIEL!” Iris called up the stairs, before looking back to Ciel with a smile.

Loud footsteps could be heard before Gladio appeared, in loose sweatpants and a very tight fitting tank top. Ciel had to remind herself that she was not going to swoon. But then she remembered that she needed to flirt with Gladio as well. “How was school today?” Gladio asked, coming down the stairs to join the girls, hands shoved into the pocket of his sweats.

“It’s was good,” Ciel said, her voice becoming weak at the issue she was in. She couldn’t flirt with Iris around, that was just wrong. “How was your day? I heard you got the entire weekend off to watch Iris with me,”

“It gave me a chance to relax, something I guess I really needed lately,” he said, smiling at her, even reaching out to brush a piece of her hair from her face, that she didn’t even notice had fallen out of place. “Looks like you had quite a day yourself,”

“Well, it was Friday, and we’re only a month into our senior year,” she said, thinking about anything else to focus on then what she needed to do this weekend, not like she could tell Gladio what was going on.

“Man, you guys are finally graduating, that’s going to be nice on you all,” he said, taking her backpack, and started heading back upstairs, Iris following after him, as Ciel kind of took her time following. “Meaning you’re going to be getting a uniform soon,”

“A more official one,” Ciel said since she did kind of already had a Crownsguard uniform already, but it was just something that she wore if there was a function that Noctis needed to attend. “But yeah, I will be getting a more official one soon.”

Iris practically bounced to Ciel’s side, looking up at her with big eyes. “You get to be around Gladdy more often than too!” she said, caught Ciel by surprised. There was no way that Iris knew about her crush towards Gladio. “Because our father is already talking about marriage for Gladdy,”

Ciel looked to Iris before looking to Gladio, who not looked rather a ridge than confident like he normally is. “Iris, do you have homework to do?” she asked, changing the topic for the moment.

Iris pouted, knowing that she had been caught skipping out on doing her homework again, and probably wanted to not finish it either now that Ciel was here. “...I’ll goes finish it,” she said, walking back to the study, obviously using the books to do her homework with.

Once she knew that the door was shut to the study, Ciel looked back to Gladio, eyebrow raised. “Your father has brought up the topic of marriage?” she asked, her voice hush so Iris couldn’t hear them talking. The thoughts of flirting with Gladio completely going to rest seeing as this was a more important matter.

“Yeah…” Gladio said, turning his back to her, taking her to the bedroom next to his own, and opening the door. “I gotta start thinking about the Amicitia legacy, but I have to keep in mind that my first born is going to be the Shield to Noct’s child, I can’t just love someone because I love them, because if they are weak in some medical way, then that wouldn’t be good, and the Amicitia line will pretty much stop there,”

Ciel caught up to him, listening to every word that he said. This was an issue with families like this. They had to not think about themselves and their happiness, but they needed to think about the crown and their entire family. They really couldn’t marry for love unless they undermine their entire family with such a selfish choice. It was worst for the Amicitia family since the firstborn was always the Shield to the King of Lucis, which was a heavy burden. “Do you have anyone in mind?” she asked, not stepping into the room, just looking at Gladio has his face was creased with lines of stress.

“I thought about it, but none of them would be deemed appropriate for being my wife,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, clearly annoyed by all of this. “...If I don’t think about this soon, then I might not be able to choose myself,”

Ciel actually winced at the end. Arranged marriages never seemed to work out, they always had others on the side that was kept a secret to the public. Very few did, those that did, those were between friends. Gladio placed her backpack inside the room, next to the door, before moving out of the way to let her in. “Your mom came by to drop your clothes off, and they’re in the closet, so get yourself comfortable,” he said, leaving her there, to just stare after him, seeing the defeated weight set into his shoulders.

She stepped into the room, closing the door behind herself, sighing. This was the first time that he had ever mentioned this to her or probably anyone. It wasn’t something that liked being discussed. Ignis had gotten the same talk not that long ago either, and he talked to them about it, and he was planning to go through with the arranged marriage because he didn’t have the time to court someone. Gladio had the time, but he didn’t go for the right company. Noctis probably had gotten the talk as well, but he kept it to himself, obviously not wanting to think about it since he was still in school and wanted to enjoy that time that he had left. Prompto was probably the freest out of them since he wasn’t born or raised in a Crownsguard family that had to think about these things by the time they were pretty much fifteen. Ciel’s mother had yet to bring up with, but if she knew one thing, her mother wants to hold off as much as possible on such a heavy conversation.

Throwing all of that to the back of her mind, Ciel headed towards the closet, deciding that it was time to change her clothes before she even thought about getting dinner cooking. Changing into a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, she grabbed her backpack, before dumping the contents out on the bed. She took her school stuff and placed it on the desk in there, noticing that her laptop was there as well, thanks to her mother seeing that she obviously forgot to grab it that morning before school. Keeping that all together, she then placed her phone and charger on the bedside table, along with her headphones, then shoved everything else back into her backpack, including her school uniform. With all of that dealt with, she then looked at herself in the full-length mirror before pulling her hair up into a rather messy bun and called it done. She was ready to get started on cooking.

Skipping down into the kitchen without Iris coming to join her or even Gladio, she started her hunt through the fridge, cabinets, and freezer to see what would be made tonight for dinner. She probably should have brought her phone with her to text Ignis some questions, but there were cookbooks off on the far side of the room, and she could easily just look through those if she didn’t come up with anything. Deciding on just making homemade hamburgers and potato wedges, she didn’t hear Gladio come into the kitchen to get a drink, so when she turned back around to go to the fridge, she almost ran into him, actually needing to grab onto his arm.

“Sorry... “ she whispered, but feeling his skin against her hand, and noticing the new detail work of his tattoo, she didn’t move back, she just moved in closer. “It’s looking a lot better, the shading is nice, adds depth…”

Her fingers traced along the lines, taking in the new shading that had been added in. There was still a lot more to do, and Gladio didn’t have a whole bunch of time in the world to be sitting in a shop to get this done, but at least these little trips were really paying off. Unknown to her, Gladio was watching her the entire time just look at his tattoo, and feeling her fingers trace all the new work done on it, he had repressed the urge to shiver by her soft touch. “It’s going to look a lot better when it’s done,” he whispered back, not understanding why he needed to, but something inside of him felt like he had to.

Ciel looked up, steel blue meeting his own golden amber, he actually leaned in a little bit. “Well, with the soft tan of your skin and your muscles, it’s really going to have a character to it… I’ll definitely trace the work after that,” she told him, completely unaware that she just undertone flirted with Gladio, which took the male by surprised, but he didn’t show it.

“Well, I’ll let you,” he said, actually just going along with it, because he wouldn’t mind at all if she touched him like this more often. He wanted her to.

The two of them separated when the sound of smaller footsteps was rushing towards them, Gladio opening the bottle of water, while Ciel grabbed the ingredients that she needed to make dinner with. The two of them acted completely normal like nothing had happened at all. Iris popped her head in, a smile coming to her face when she found the two of them. “There you guys are, I was looking for you both everywhere, I need help with my homework,” she said, looking between the two.

“Yeah, I’ll help with that, Ciel is cooking,” he said, letting Iris rush away again before he followed after her.

He was passing Ciel, before he stopped behind her, and did the most uncharacteristic thing ever, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a hug. “Gl-Gladio?” Ciel questioned, trying to look up at him, but froze when her ear had rested against his chest, to hear that his heart was racing within the confines of his ribs.

“We’ll talk later,” he said, letting her go, leaving her standing there with many questions in her head. That wasn’t any normal hug, that held a lot more emotions than anything in the past. And Ciel wasn’t oblivious to emotions through emotional touch.

 

Dinner was interesting, Iris was sharing things about what happened at school that day, Gladio adding in what he did on his day off, and Ciel talked about school a little bit as well, sharing about how Noctis passed out during math class again, and the teacher pulled out a spray bottle and went up to him and sprayed him, like he was a bad cat. Gladio got a kick out of that. Once they were all finished, Gladio said he would do the dishes and Ciel was dragged off to help Iris with the rest of her homework. She still felt Gladio’s touch around her waist and how his heart was racing. It was bothering her, what did Gladio want to talk to her about? They’ve been going well for so long now, and now they needed to talk about something, the only thing was, Ciel, didn’t feel worried, that this wasn’t going to be anything bad.

After Iris was done her homework, the three of them came into the living room, set up a movie that Iris wanted to watch, but made sure that it was appropriate for her age before turning it on. Iris also made it her mission that that huge couch was only hers, kicking Ciel and Gladio into the loveseat that was in a good position for the screen, but not really to keep an eye on Iris. The latter didn’t really matter, it was Friday, Iris had every right to stay up late and they were going to let her. The two sat there, at first, pushing themselves as close to the armrests as possible to give the other room. By the end of the first movie, they had relaxed a lot and were sitting normally. Another movie was put on by Iris, and this one was much longer. The two of them continued to sit there, and it was Ciel who made the first move. She wasn’t as comfortable anymore from the first movie, and shifted around a little bit, resting her head against Gladio’s shoulder, her eyes glued to the screen, not realizing that Gladio now had his attention resting on her. Carefully, he moved his arm, wrapping it around her shoulder instead of having Ciel lean against it, and let her head rest against his chest. At some point, Gladio’s hand started to slowly run up and down her arm, not realizing that he just kind of started doing it.

Iris was watching it all though, she wasn’t blind, she knew about Gladio’s feelings towards Ciel, and Ciel’s towards him, it was mutual, but neither of them was acting on it. So, she decided that she would try everything in her power to get those two to talk about it because she was itching for them to be together so that they could be happier than before. Mainly why she brought up about Gladio getting told that he needed to think about getting married soon. Slipping from the couch, she went and put the third movie in, determined to stay awake through it all.

With that third movie playing, both Gladio and Ciel were both uncomfortable on that small love seat as they were. Ciel had been sitting in a seat all day already, she didn’t need any more of it, and Gladio was doing a lot too, apparently catching up on some paperwork, even though he was getting the entire weekend off, he just wanted to get it finished with. Gladio finally wrapped both of his arms around Ciel, before shifting them all around, so that Gladio was laying down and Ciel was rested on top of him. Ciel actually didn’t mind that at all, it was a lot better than her legs being crushed to her chest. Iris all the while was smirking at them, happy to see the development.

Finally, at the credits of the third movie, Ciel glanced over to the big couch and saw that Iris had passed out at some point, most of her body was hanging off the couch, but she looked content. She was about to get off of Gladio, but his arms kept her there against him, making her look up.

“Hey, we got to get Iris to bed,” she whispered, not wishing to risk of awakening the youngest.

Gladio shook his head, looking at her. “She can wait just a little longer,” he replied, his voice soft, just like his fingers that brushed away some of her hair from her face once again.

Ciel watched Gladio’s eyes, actually needing to take a deep breath before she could even think about continuing the conversation. “You said you wanted to talk earlier,” she said, her voice low, not wanting to risk awakening Iris. “What was it about?”

Gladio was watching her eyes more than he wanted to admit, but the way that they looked in the lighting, he was mesmerized. He actually almost missed her questioned. “I don’t know how to casually bring this up, but I’m afraid to ruin us again,” he said, his words true what he was feeling in that moment. He was terrified that if he said something, that this was actually it for them this time. Permanently.

“Whatever you want to say, just say it, I’m not going to push you away again, I can’t,” she said, her hand coming up, resting on his face, making sure that he didn’t try and look away from her.

Gladio almost confessed at that moment to her, she looked like she did love him. But, he couldn’t risk it. He needed to be thinking about the future of the Amicitia family, he needed to be thinking about his future, and he couldn’t be sure that his future would have Ciel in it, because as much as he loved her, he couldn’t be sure that she felt the same. “...I want to be friends with benefits.”

Ciel opened her mouth, before she actually had to climb off Gladio, and take a seat on the floor. Hearing those words leave his mouth, she was taken back. Yeah, she was hoping for a confession. She knew that she was kind of flirting tonight, as lowkey as it might have been, she didn’t think that it could lead to this of all things. Ciel kind of thought that Gladio might bring up that she was doing it, but hear him say that he wants to be friends with benefits with her, her brain kind of just went on a vacation and just closed on her.

Gladio, on the other hand, began panicking. He fucked up, he totally fucked up. She was a senior in High School, she still had her entire life ahead of her. She probably hadn’t even gotten this talk about marriage yet, she dated Noctis for a short period of time. Her first boyfriend was Noctis, and that was that there was no way that she was pining for him. Ignis, yeah, he could see her wanting to be with him for the rest of her life, at least they could take care of each other. Gladio wasn’t much for cooking, and he couldn’t promise that he would be home often, especially for Ciel, she was a family kind of gal. Hell, even she would be better off with Prompto. He at least wanted a shock with her, even if it meant that no feelings could really be involved, but seeing here there, just sitting, completely at a loss, he was very worried.

“...I need to get Iris to bed… I’ll meet you back here in a minute,” Ciel said, standing to her feet, through steadily for her, going to the younger girl and easily lifting her up. Gladio was actually a bit turned on at how easy Ciel did that, but he didn’t stop her from doing so, she did say that she would come back.

Ciel took Iris upstairs and got her tucked into bed, she was out cold, but she seemed rather happy. She probably didn’t like unknown babysitters and missed Ciel a lot. Ciel actually kind of felt bad that she didn’t hang around Iris more often during that time that Gladio and her kind of were at odds with each other. At least she was back now, that’s what matters. Softly closing Iris’ door behind her, she needed to lean against it and think about Gladio’s offer. Was this the right thing to do? Probably not. But was it better than nothing, and never get that chance to be with him? Yes, it was. If he needed to start thinking about getting a wife, then, Ciel was really at a lost, there was no way that she could be able to compare to anyone that Gladio chooses, or whoever he would be matched with. She wasn’t in his league at all. Yet, he was offering her this, this chance that would let her be with him in a way that she’s never been with before.

After all, she only had one life, she might as well do something insane.

Heading back downstairs, Gladio was sitting up properly, and his head was in his hands. When he looked up at her, he stood quickly to his full height. “Hey, that was insensitive of me, I really shouldn’t have-” he started to say before he was quickly cut off.

“I want to,” Ciel said, she resolve strong in her voice. She wasn’t going to back out of this. “Just… Be patient with me… I’m still a virgin.”

Gladio’s mouth dropped. There she was, standing shyly, something that she never does, not making eye contact with him or anything. She just casually agreed to be friends with benefits. Not only that, she was sure of herself with her answer.  Collecting himself again, he took a seat back on the couch and ran a hand through his hair. “Are you sure that you want me to be your first?” he asked, wanting to be very sure that she was ready to give this up to him. This was something that she wouldn’t be able to take back.

Ciel nodded her head, finally looking at Gladio, eyes hardened. She wasn't backing out of this. She wanted Gladio to be her first since she started to think sexually. She wanted him to care for her, to make sure she was okay. To love her. This was going to be the closest that she would get to such a thing, but she was going to take the risk. “I wouldn’t be saying yes if I wasn’t sure… I want you to be my first. I trust you,” she whispered, deciding to take a seat on the floor again and leaning against the seat of the couch, and a decent distance away from Gladio.

The pair sat there in silence, neither of them knows how to proceed with such a thing now agreed upon. Gladio cleared his throat, thinking that it was wise to lay out some ground rules. Or at least something for them, not for his sake, but for Ciel’s mostly. “We can’t tell anyone,” he said, glancing up at her, making her look at him. “Out of respect to the others, and to not make tensions rise between the group, we’ll just keep this between us. And, we’re going to be taking this step by step, we don’t need to rush. I want this not to be something that you regret years down the road,”

“Yeah, I can get behind that,” Ciel said, agreeing to what Gladio was saying. And he wasn’t wrong with everything that he was saying either. He wanted her to be comfortable. That also meant that they were both in control with how fast that they wanted to move forward. “So… What now?”

Gladio looked at her and moved himself to the floor as well. Ciel was watching him closely, something inside of her felt like she was going to attack him. Gladio, for the third time that night, brushed her hair from her face, softly cupping her cheek. “How about this…”

Leaning down, he pressed his slightly chapped lips to rather smooth ones, that happily welcomed back his kiss.


End file.
